<span class="titolo">Maldini Confirms June Retirement</span></p> <div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'></p> <span class="sommario">AC Milan stalwart Paolo Maldini has announced that he will definitively bow out of professional football in June 2008...</span></p> Paolo Maldini used the occasion of AC Milan's Club World Cup final win to announce his retirement from the senior game. "It's hard for someone to reach the age of 39 and still compete at the top level," sighed the rossoneri captain. "I'm satisfied with what we've done today [against Boca Juniors] and throughout my career. "In June, I will retire with no regrets. Playing right now is a struggle and while I still have the odd pain, I have such fun on the pitch." Maldini has been at AC Milan since 1984, lifting a whopping 25 major trophies in his time with the club. The versatile left/centre-back has played well in excess of 600 games for his club, and also won 126 caps for Italy in a glittering fourteen-year spell. This is not the first time he's announced his retirement. In late 2005 he pledged to quit at the end of the 2006-07 campaign, before having a change of heart heading into the current one.</div></p>
