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Italy vs France: Zidane or Maldini, who is greater?

7 November 2026 · Footballers

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Italy host France at San Siro on Thursday 12 November, in the Nations League, and few fixtures in European football carry as much history. The two countries met in the World Cup finals of 2006 and the European Championship final of 2000, and between them they have produced some of the greatest players the game has seen. So instead of predicting the score, we asked a different question: across the two countries, who does the world think is greater? The box above shows how the votes split today.

Start with the two names at the top of each side. Zinedine Zidane is the highest-ranked Frenchman on the list and sits in the world's top five. He headed two goals past Brazil in the 1998 World Cup final, won the Ballon d'Or that year, added the European Championship in 2000 and spent five seasons at Juventus in Turin. Paolo Maldini is Italy's highest-ranked player. He played his whole career for AC Milan, more than twenty seasons, won the European Cup five times and made San Siro, the ground where Thursday's game is played, his home. Two of the greatest players of their generation, one a playmaker, one a defender: the box shows which way the world leans.

Then the number tens. Michel Platini won three Ballon d'Or awards in a row with Juventus in the 1980s and scored nine goals as France won the European Championship in 1984. Roberto Baggio won the Ballon d'Or in 1993, played for Juventus, AC Milan and Inter, and carried Italy to the 1994 World Cup final, where his missed penalty in the shoot-out is one of the most famous images in the history of the tournament. Both are among the most loved players either country has had, and both sit inside the world's top forty.

And there is the night in Berlin. In the 2006 World Cup final Zidane opened the scoring with a chipped penalty, and in extra time Gianluigi Buffon pushed his header over the bar. Zidane was later sent off, and Italy won the shoot-out to lift their fourth World Cup. Thierry Henry was on the pitch for France that night, as he had been six years earlier in Rotterdam, when France beat Italy in the final of Euro 2000 with a golden goal from David Trezeguet. Buffon against Henry is the third question in the box: the greatest goalkeeper of his era or one of the finest strikers of the Premier League.

Beyond those names the list keeps going. Kylian Mbappé is the highest-ranked active player from either side, and Italy answer with Alessandro Del Piero, Franco Baresi and Andrea Pirlo, whose penalty in that Berlin shoot-out is still remembered.

The world ranking of footballers is built from head-to-head picks, two players at a time, and it moves every day. If you think Maldini belongs above Zidane, or Baggio above Platini, the vote is open before Thursday's kick-off.

Vote: Zinedine Zidane vs Paolo Maldini

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