Once Maldini retires, their is no more number three. He is the second Milan player to have his number retired. http://www.channel4.com/sport/football_italia/jan28h.html
I agree, I'm surprised it's taken this long to happen. But I don't think number retirements are that common in Italy.
No, in fact Baresi just might have been to first player ever to have his number retired. Until only a few years ago, shirt numbers were assigned 1-11 to the 11 players that started that particular game, so there was no possibility of retiring numbers.
It's funny you say that because now that Napoli are in C1, squad numbers must me assigned as Randy said, the starting 11 get 1-11 and the subs 12-22. So, they have to use the retired #10 and they couldn't get around the rule...
I think that Paolo Maldini deserves to be honoured but i am not a fan of the retiring jerseys. NEVER. Part of the magic of football to me is seeing most of the players playing with numbers 1-22, i mean sure its nice to see a few players wearing odd numbers Cristian Lucarelli 99 Christian Vieri 32 Edgar Davids 26 Francesco Coco 77 But with that said, just think in maybe 20 years, their could be the obscene scenario of no number 10's in any world team. Raul 7 Alessandro Del Piero 10 Gianluigi Buffon 1 Andriy Shevchenko 7 Alessandro Nesta 13 I think honouring a player is very much appreciated but retiring jerseys is not sometin i support!
I agree. But, in twenty years there will be no other player like Maldini. To play an entire GLORIOUS career in the same jersey is something that happens once every 40 years or so.