Истории о Милане!

AC MILAN & FABIO CAPELLO · 20 февраля 2005

Привет, Миланисты!

Предлагаю говорить, постить фоты, интервью и т.п., в общем всё, что только можно - о Клубе!

AnnKorolenko · 22 февраля 2005

Очень интересная тема.Вот я ,например,практически ничего не знаю про МИЛАН середины 90-х гг.,за исключением некотрых личностей и выигранных трофеев.А хочется нечто большего,хочется знать и владеть фактами,а к тому же оригинальными о своём клубе.Ребятки,помогайте!

KONDR · 22 февраля 2005

Эх, жаль полетел старый форум. Я туда столько статей (на английском правда) кидал... Будет время, может опять поищу.

**alexmilan23** · 22 февраля 2005

Эх, жаль полетел старый форум. Я туда столько статей (на английском правда) кидал... Будет время, может опять поищу.

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Кирилл,найди пожалуйста!Очень хочется почитать чего-то интересного! И нового!

KONDR · 25 февраля 2005

Потом поищу. Вот пока пара клипов

!) Ван Бастен!

http://www.xandru.footballclips.net/Others...Basten-Goals.rm

2) Веа

http://www.footballclips.net/cadamateri/10...20of%20Weah.avi

Lex · 27 февраля 2005

Почему-то заговорили про ван Бастена сразу, хотя он именно к этой эпохе не сильно относится...Скорее, Росси, Савичевич, Лентини, Десайи, Бобан, Симоне, Массаро....

KONDR · 27 февраля 2005

Ван-Бастен скорее 91 и 92 годы, хотявсе равно он сделал больше в разы чем Лентини (хотя считаю его гением) или Симоне...

AC MILAN & FABIO CAPELLO · 1 марта 2005

1-й сезон – АС «МИЛАН» Италия (01.07.1991 - 30.06.1992 гг.):

трофей - Чемпионат Италии

главный тренер - Фабио Капелло

вратари - Себастьяно Росси, Франческо Антониоли

защитники - Франко Барези (капитан), Паоло Мальдини, Мауро Тассотти, Алессандро Костакурта, Филиппо Галли, Энцо Гамбаро

полузащитники - Франк Райкаард (Голландия), Роберто Донадони, Деметрио Альбертини, Альбериго Эвани, Диего Фузер, Карло Анчелотти, Джованни Корначчини

нападающие - Марко Ван Бастен (Голландия), Рууд Гуллит (Голландия), Даниэле Массаро, Марко Симоне, Альдо Серена

МАТЧИ - 1991 год:

Трофей Берлускони -

«Милан»-«Ювентус» 1:2 (Мальдини)

Серия «А» -

«Асколи»-«Милан» 0:1 (автогол Бенетти), «Милан»-«Кальяри» 1:0 (Ван Бастен с пенальти), «Ювентус»-«Милан» 1:1 (автогол Каррера), «Милан»-«Фиорентина» 1:1 (Ван Бастен с пенальти), «Милан»-«Дженоа» ?:? (1:0 к 49-й минуте - Эвани, перенос матча из-за погодных условий), «Аталанта»-«Милан» 0:2 (Ван Бастен с пенальти – Альбертини), «Милан»-«Парма» 2:0 (Гуллит - Ван Бастен), «Бари»-«Милан» 0:1 (Массаро), «Милан»-«Рома» 4:1 (Ван Бастен - Массаро – Райкаард – Костакурта, удалён Ван Бастен), «Сампдория»-«Милан» 0:2 (Гуллит 2), перенесённый матч «Милан»-«Дженоа» 1:1 (Ван Бастен с пенальти), «Милан»-«Кремонезе» 3:1 (Ван Бастен – Гуллит – Фузер), «Интер»-«Милан» 1:1 (Ван Бастен, удалён Барези), «Милан»-«Торино» 2:0 (Гуллит – Массаро), «Лацио»-«Милан» 1:1 (Ван Бастен)

Кубок Италии -

«Милан»-«Брешиа» 2:0 (Гуллит - Ван Бастен с пенальти), 2:1 (Галли - Ван Бастен с пенальти), «Верона»-«Милан» 2:2 (Мальдини - Ван Бастен), 1:1 (Ван Бастен с пенальти)

МАТЧИ – 1992 год:

Серия «А» -

«Милан»-«Наполи» 5:0 (Мальдини – Райкаард – Массаро – Донадони - Ван Бастен, удалён Костакурта), «Верона»-«Милан» 0:1 (автогол Икарди), «Милан»-«Фоджа» 3:1 (Ван Бастен 3-два с пенальти), «Милан»-«Асколи» 4:1 (Симоне – Мальдини – Райкаард – Альбертини), «Кальяри»-«Милан» 1:4 (Ван Бастен 3-один с пенальти – Массаро), «Милан»-«Ювентус» 1:1 (Ван Бастен), «Фиорентина»-«Милан» 0:0, «Дженоа»-«Милан» 0:0, «Милан»-«Аталанта» 3:1 (Ван Бастен 3-один с пенальти), «Парма»-«Милан» 1:3 (Симоне 2 - автогол Грюн), «Милан»-«Бари» 2:0 (Симоне - Ван Бастен со штрафного удара), «Рома»-«Милан» 1:1 (Симоне), «Милан»-«Сампдория» 5:1 (Райкаард – Эвани - Ван Бастен – Массаро – Альбертини), «Кремонезе»-«Милан» 1:1 (автогол Бономи), «Милан»-«Интер» 1:0 (Массаро), «Торино»-«Милан» 2:2 (Массаро – Фузер, автогол Анчелотти), «Милан»-«Лацио» 2:0 (Массаро – Фузер), «Наполи»-«Милан» 1:1 (Райкаард, завоевание скудетто), «Милан»-«Верона» 4:0 (Ван Бастен с пенальти – Гуллит - Анчелотти 2), «Фоджа»-«Милан» 2:8 (Мальдини – Гуллит - Ван Бастен 2 - автогол Матрекано - Симоне 2 – Фузер)

Кубок Италии -

«Милан»-«Торино» 2:0 (Барези – Симоне), 1:1 (автогол Бруно), «Милан»-«Ювентус» 0:0, 0:1

AC MILAN & FABIO CAPELLO · 1 марта 2005

2-й сезон – АС «МИЛАН» Италия (01.07.1992-30.06.1993 гг.):

трофеи – Суперкубок Италии, Чемпионат Италии

главный тренер – Фабио Капелло

вратари - Себастьяно Росси, Франческо Антониоли, Карло Кудичини

защитники - Франко Барези (капитан), Паоло Мальдини, Мауро Тассотти, Алессандро Костакурта, Филиппо Галли, Стефано Нава, Энцо Гамбаро

полузащитники - Деметрио Альбертини, Франк Райкаард (Голландия), Джанлуиджи Лентини, Стефано Эранио, Роберто Донадони, Альбериго Эвани, Звонимир Бобан (Хорватия), Фернандо Де Наполи

нападающие - Марко Ван Бастен (Голландия), Рууд Гуллит (Голландия), Жан-Пьер Папен (Франция), Даниэле Массаро, Марко Симоне, Альдо Серена, Деян Савичевич (Черногория)

МАТЧИ – 1992 год:

Трофей Берлускони -

«Милан»-«Интер» 1:0 (Папен)

Суперкубок Италии –

«Милан»-«Парма» 2:1 (Ван Бастен – Массаро)

Серия «А» -

«Милан»-«Фоджа» 1:0 (автогол Грандини), «Пескара»-«Милан» 4:5 (Мальдини – Лентини – Ван Бастен 3), «Милан»-«Аталанта» 2:0 (Массаро – Ван Бастен), «Сампдория»-«Милан» ?:? (перенос матча из-за погодных условий), «Фиорентина»-«Милан» 3:7 (Массаро 2 – Лентини – Гуллит 2 – Ван Бастен 2), «Милан»-«Лацио» 5:3 (Гуллит – Папен – Ван Бастен 2-оба с пенальти – Симоне), «Парма»-«Милан» 0:2 (Папен – Эранио), «Милан»-«Торино» 0:0, «Наполи»-«Милан» 1:5 (Ван Бастен 4 – Эранио), «Милан»-«Интер» 1:1 (Лентини), «Ювентус»-«Милан» 0:1 (Симоне, Росси парировал пенальти от Виалли), «Милан»-«Удинезе» 1:1 (Альбертини), «Милан»-«Анкона» 2:0 (Папен 2-один со штрафного удара), перенесённый матч «Сампдория»-«Милан» 1:2 (Симоне – Гуллит)

Лига Чемпионов -

«Милан»-«Олимпия» 4:0 (Бобан со штрафного удара – Ван Бастен 2), 3:0 (Тассотти – Райкаард), «Слован»-«Милан» 0:1 (Мальдини), 0:4 (Папен 2 – Симоне), «Милан»-«Гётеборг» 4:0 (Ван Бастен 4-один с пенальти), «ПСВ»Эйндховен-«Милан» 1:2 (Райкаард – Симоне)

Кубок Италии –

«Милан»-«Тернана» 4:0 (Савичевич 2-один с пенальти – Гуллит – Массаро), 6:2 (Массаро – автогол Кавеззи – Савичевич – Гуллит 2 – Эвани), «Милан»-«Кальяри» 3:0 (Папен 2 – Лентини), 0:0

МАТЧИ – 1993 год:

Серия «А» -

«Рома»-«Милан» 0:1 (Гуллит, удалён Барези), «Милан»-«Кальяри» 1:0 (Папен с пенальти), «Брешиа»-«Милан» 0:1 (Массаро), «Милан»-«Дженоа» 1:0 (Савичевич с пенальти), «Фоджа»-«Милан» 2:2 (Папен – Райкаард), «Милан»-«Пескара» 4:0 (Савичевич – Папен 2 – Донадони), «Аталанта»-«Милан» 1:1 (Папен), «Милан»-«Сампдория» 4:0 (Папен 2 - Лентини 2), «Милан»-«Фиорентина» 2:0 (Савичевич 2), «Лацио»-«Милан» 2:2 (Папен – автогол Винтер), «Милан»-«Парма» 0:1, «Торино»-«Милан» 1:1 (Гуллит), «Милан»-«Наполи» 2:2 (Лентини 2), «Интер»-«Милан» 1:1 (Гуллит), «Милан»-«Ювентус» 1:3 (Симоне), «Удинезе»-«Милан» 0:0, «Анкона»-«Милан» 1:3 (Райкаард – Ван Бастен – Мальдини), «Милан»-«Рома» 0:0, «Кальяри»-«Милан» 1:1 (Массаро, удалён Эвани), «Милан»-«Брешиа» 1:1 (Альбертини, завоевание скудетто), «Дженоа»-«Милан» 2:2 (Симоне – Папен)

Лига Чемпионов -

«Порту»-«Милан» 0:1 (Папен), 0:1 (Эранио), «Гётеборг»-«Милан» 0:1 (Массаро), «Милан»-«ПСВ»Эйндховен 2:0 (Симоне 2), «Олимпик»Марсель-«Милан» 1:0

Кубок Италии -

«Милан»-«Интер» 0:0, 3:0 (Папен 2 – Гуллит), «Рома»-«Милан» 2:0, 0:1 (Эранио, не реализовал пенальти Папен)

AC MILAN & FABIO CAPELLO · 1 марта 2005

3-й сезон – АС «МИЛАН» Италия (01.07.1993-30.06.1994 гг.):

трофеи – Суперкубок Италии, Чемпионат Италии, Лига Чемпионов

главный тренер – Фабио Капелло

вратари - Себастьяно Росси, Марио Йельпо

защитники - Франко Барези (капитан), Паоло Мальдини, Алессандро Костакурта, Мауро Тассотти, Кристиан Пануччи, Филиппо Галли, Стефано Нава, Алессандро Орландо

полузащитники - Деметрио Альбертини, Марсель Дезайи (Франция, появился в команде в ноябре), Звонимир Бобан (Хорватия), Роберто Донадони, Стефано Эранио, Джанлуиджи Лентини, Анджело Карбоне, Фернандо Де Наполи

нападающие - Даниэле Массаро, Деян Савичевич (Черногория), Марко Симоне, Жан-Пьер Папен (Франция), Брайан Лаудруп (Дания), Флорин Радучою (Румыния), Марко Ван Бастен (Голландия, травмирован весь сезон)

МАТЧИ – 1993 год:

Трофей Берлускони –

«Милан»-«Реал» 3:2 (Бобан – Симоне – Папен)

Суперкубок Италии -

«Милан»-«Торино» 1:0 (Симоне, игра в Вашингтоне)

Серия «А» -

«Лечче»-«Милан» 0:1 (Бобан), «Милан»-«Дженоа» 1:0 (Массаро, игра в Неаполе), «Пьяченца»-«Милан» 0:0, «Милан»-«Аталанта» 2:0 (Папен – Радучою), «Милан»-«Рома» 2:0 (Папен – Нава), «Кремонезе»-«Милан» 0:2 (Папен – Симоне), «Милан»-«Лацио» 0:0, «Фоджа»-«Милан» 1:1 (Бобан), «Милан»-«Ювентус» 1:1 (Альбертини), «Сампдория»-«Милан» 3:2 (Альбертини – Лаудруп), «Интер»-«Милан» 1:2 (Пануччи – Папен), «Милан»-«Наполи» 2:1 (Пануччи – Альбертини со штрафного удара), «Парма»-«Милан» 0:0, «Милан»-«Торино» 1:0 (Радучою), «Удинезе»-«Милан» ?:? (перенос матча в связи с розыгрышом Межконтинентального кубка), «Милан»-«Кальяри» 2:1 (Массаро 2)

Лига Чемпионов -

«Арау»-«Милан» 0:1 (Папен), 0:0, «Копенгаген»-«Милан» 0:6 (Папен 2 – Симоне 2 – Лаудруп – Ал. Орландо), 0:1 (Папен), «Андерлехт»-«Милан» 0:0, «Милан»-«Порту» 3:0 (Радучою – Пануччи – Массаро)

Кубок Италии -

«Милан»-«Виченца» 3:0 (Карбоне – Радучою – Эранио), 1:1 (Савичевич), «Милан»-«Пьяченца» 1:1 (Ал. Орландо), 0:1

Межконтинентальный кубок -

«Сан-Паулу»-«Милан» 3:2 (Массаро – Папен)

МАТЧИ – 1994 год:

Суперкубок Европы -

«Парма»-«Милан» 0:1 (Папен), 2:0 в доп. время

Серия «А» -

«Реджана»-«Милан» 0:1 (Дезайи, удалён Папен), перенесённый матч «Удинезе»-«Милан» 0:0, «Милан»-«Лечче» 0:0, «Дженоа»-«Милан» 0:0, «Милан»-«Пьяченца» 2:0 (Массаро – Папен), «Аталанта»-«Милан» 0:1 (Массаро), «Рома»-«Милан» 0:2 (Массаро – Мальдини), «Милан»-«Кремонезе» 1:0 (Симоне, не реализовали по пенальти Костакурта и Савичевич), «Лацио»-«Милан» 0:1 (Массаро), «Милан»-«Фоджа» 2:1 (Бобан – Массаро), «Ювентус»-«Милан» 0:1 (Эранио), «Милан»-«Сампдория» 1:0 (Массаро), «Милан»-«Интер» 2:1 (Савичевич – Массаро), «Наполи»-«Милан» 1:0, «Милан»-«Парма» 1:1 (Массаро), «Торино»-«Милан» 0:0, «Милан»-«Удинезе» 2:2 (Бобан – Симоне, завоевание скудетто), «Кальяри»-«Милан» 0:0, «Милан»-«Реджана» 0:1

Лига Чемпионов –

«Милан»-«Вердер» 2:1 (Мальдини – Савичевич), 1:1 (Савичевич), «Милан»-«Андерлехт» 0:0, «Порту»-«Милан» 0:0, «Милан»-«Монако» 3:0 (Дезайи – Альбертини со штрафного удара – Массаро, удалён Костакурта), «Барселона»-«Милан» 0:4 (Массаро 2 – Савичевич – Дезайи)

AC MILAN & FABIO CAPELLO · 2 марта 2005

4-й сезон – АС «МИЛАН» Италия (01.07.1994-30.06.1995 гг.):

трофеи - Суперкубок Италии, Суперкубок Европы

главный тренер – Фабио Капелло

вратари - Себастьяно Росси, Марио Йельпо

защитники - Франко Барези (капитан), Паоло Мальдини, Алессандро Костакурта, Кристиан Пануччи, Мауро Тассотти, Филиппо Галли, Стефано Нава, Алессандро Орландо (был в команде до сентября)

полузащитники - Деметрио Альбертини, Марсель Дезайи (Франция), Звонимир Бобан (Хорватия), Роберто Донадони, Стефано Эранио, Джанлуиджи Лентини, Джованни Строппа, Паоло Ди Канио (появился в команде с сентября), Джанлука Сордо, Массимо Орландо

нападающие - Рууд Гуллит (Голландия, был в команде до ноября), Деян Савичевич (Черногория), Марко Симоне, Даниэле Массаро, Алессандро Мёлли (появился в команде с ноября), Марко Ван Бастен (Голландия, травмирован весь сезон)

МАТЧИ – 1994 год:

Трофей Берлускони -

«Милан»-«Бавария» 1:0 (Гуллит)

Суперкубок Италии -

«Милан»-«Сампдория» 1:1 (Гуллит) 4:3 по пенальти (Альбертини – Бобан – Симоне – Костакурта)

Серия «А» -

«Милан»-«Дженоа» 1:0 (Симоне), «Кальяри»-«Милан» 1:1 (Гуллит), «Милан»-«Лацио» 2:1 (Гуллит 2), «Кремонезе»-«Милан» 1:0 (удалён Пануччи), «Милан»-«Брешиа» 1:0 (Симоне), «Падова»-«Милан» 2:0 (удалён Дезайи), «Сампдория»-«Милан» 0:0, «Ювентус»-«Милан» 1:0, «Милан»-«Парма» 1:1 (Массаро), «Милан»-«Интер» 1:1 (Мальдини), «Торино»-«Милан» ?:? (перенос матча из-за розыгрыша Межконтинентального кубка), «Милан»-«Реджана» ?:? (перенос матча из-за розыгрыша Межконтинентального кубка), «Фоджа»-«Милан» 1:3 (Симоне 2 – Савичевич), «Рома»-«Милан» 0:0, перенесённый матч «Торино»-«Милан» 0:0 (удалён Дезайи)

Лига Чемпионов -

«Аякс»-«Милан» 2:0, «Милан»-«Казино» 3:0 (Строппа – Симоне 2), «АЕК»-«Милан» 0:0, 1:2 (Пануччи 2, игра в Триесте), «Милан»-«Аякс» 0:2 (автогол Барези, игра в Триесте), «Казино»-«Милан» 0:1 (Массаро)

Кубок Италии -

«Милан»-«Палермо» 0:1, 1:0 в доп время (Строппа) 3:2 по пенальти, «Милан»-«Интер» 1:2 (Лентини), 1:2 (Донадони)

Межконтинентальный кубок -

«Велес Сарсфилд»-«Милан» 2:0 (удалён Костакурта)

МАТЧИ – 1995 год:

Суперкубок Европы -

«Арсенал»-«Милан» 0:0, 0:2 (Бобан – Массаро)

Серия «А» -

«Милан»-«Наполи» 1:1 (Симоне), перенесённый матч «Милан»-«Реджана» 2:1 (Симоне – Савичевич), «Бари»-«Милан» 3:5 (Массаро - Савичевич 4), «Милан»-«Фиорентина» 2:0 (Дезайи - Ди Канио), «Дженоа»-«Милан» ?:? (0:0 после первого тайма, перенос матча из-за беспорядков в Генуе), «Милан»-«Кальяри» 1:1 (Пануччи), перенесённый матч «Дженоа»-«Милан» 1:1 (Пануччи), «Лацио»-«Милан» 4:0 (автогол Барези, удалён Мальдини), «Милан»-«Кремонезе» 3:1 (Бобан – Строппа – Массаро), «Брешиа»-«Милан» 0:5 (Симоне 3 – Мальдини – Строппа), «Милан»-«Падова» 1:0 (Симоне), «Сампдория»-«Милан» 0:3 (Симоне - Альбертини 2-со штрафного удара и пенальти), «Милан»-«Ювентус» 0:2 (удалён Бобан), «Парма»-«Милан» 2:3 (Лентини - Симоне 2-один с пенальти, удалён Барези), «Интер»-«Милан» 3:1 (Строппа, автогол Росси), «Милан»-«Торино» 5:1 (Савичевич – Симоне – Лентини - Донадони 2, игра в Болонье), «Реджана»-«Милан» 0:4 (Лентини - автогол Де Наполи – Савичевич – Симоне), «Милан»-«Фоджа» 3:0 (Лентини – Савичевич – Симоне), «Милан»-«Рома» 1:0 (Лентини), «Наполи»-«Милан» 1:0, «Милан»-«Бари» 0:1, «Фиорентина»-«Милан» 1:2 (Мелли – Симоне с пенальти)

Лига Чемпионов -

«Милан»-«Бенфика» 2:0 (Симоне 2), 0:0, «ПСЖ»-«Милан» 0:1 (Бобан), 0:2 (Савичевич 2), «Аякс»-«Милан» 1:0

AC MILAN & FABIO CAPELLO · 2 марта 2005

5-й сезон – «МИЛАН» Италия (01.07.1995-30.06.1996 гг.):

трофей - Чемпионат Италии

главный тренер – Фабио Капелло

вратари - Себастьяно Росси, Марио Йельпо

защитники - Франко Барези (капитан), Паоло Мальдини, Алессандро Костакурта, Кристиан Пануччи, Мауро Тассотти, Филиппо Галли, Франческо Коко, Стефано Нава (был в команде до ноября)

полузащитники - Деметрио Альбертини, Марсель Дезайи (Франция), Звонимир Бобан (Хорватия), Роберто Донадони, Стефано Эранио, Джанлуиджи Лентини, Паоло Ди Канио, Массимо Амброзини, Патрик Виейра (Франция, появился в команде в ноябре), Джанлука Сордо

нападающие - Джордж Веа (Либерия), Деян Савичевич (Черногория), Роберто Баджо, Марко Симоне, Томас Локателли, Паулу Футре (Португалия)

МАТЧИ – 1995 год:

Трофей Берлускони –

«Милан»-«Ювентус» 0:0 \ 5:6 по пенальти (Баджо, не забил пенальти Веа)

Серия «А» -

«Падова»-«Милан» 1:2 (Веа – Барези), «Милан»-«Удинезе» 2:1 (автогол Сержио – Баджо), «Рома»-«Милан» 1:2 (Веа 2), «Милан»-«Аталанта» 3:0 (Дезайи – Баджо - Ди Канио), «Бари»-«Милан» 1:0 (удалён Альбертини), «Милан»-«Ювентус» 2:1 (Симоне со штрафного удара – Веа), «Виченца»-«Милан» 1:1 (Эранио), «Милан»-«Интер» 1:1 (Савичевич), «Милан»-«Кальяри» 3:2 (Ди Канио – Лентини – Симоне), «Парма»-«Милан» 0:0, «Милан»-«Пьяченца» 3:0 (Савичевич – Пануччи – Мальдини), «Лацио»-«Милан» 0:1 (Веа), «Милан»-«Наполи» 0:0, «Милан»-«Торино» 1:1 (Бобан), «Фиорентина»-«Милан» 2:2 (Веа - Баджо с пенальти)

Кубок Италии -

«Пескара»-«Милан» 1:4 (Лентини – Савичевич – Веа – Симоне), «Форли»-«Милан» 0:2 (Ди Канио – Эранио), «Болонья»-«Милан» 1:1 (Коко), 1:1 в доп. время (Савичевич с пенальти, автогол Барези) 7:6 по пенальти

Кубок УЕФА -

«Милан»-«Заглембе» 4:0 (Савичевич – автогол Роговской – Веа – Бобан), 4:1 (Эранио – Симоне - Бобан 2), «Страсбур»-«Милан» 0:1 (Симоне), 1:2 (Баджо 2-один с пенальти), «Милан»-«Спарта» 2:0 (Веа 2), 0:0

МАТЧИ – 1996 год:

Серия «А» -

«Милан»-«Сампдория» 3:0 (Пануччи – Савичевич – Баджо), «Кремонезе»-«Милан» 0:0, «Милан»-«Падова» 1:0 (Баджо с пенальти), «Удинезе»-«Милан» 0:2 (Мальдини – Бобан), «Милан»-«Рома» 3:1 (Веа - Савичевич – Пануччи), «Аталанта»-«Милан» 0:1 (Веа, удалён Пануччи), «Милан»-«Бари» 3:2 (Симоне 2-один с пенальти – Веа), «Ювентус»-«Милан» 1:1 (Веа), «Милан»-«Виченца» 4:0 (Савичевич - Симоне 2-один с пенальти - Ди Канио), «Интер»-«Милан» 1:0, «Кальяри»-«Милан» ?:? (перенос игрового тура из-за забастовки профсоюза игроков), «Милан»-«Парма» 3:0 (Баджо – Донадони – Савичевич, не реализовал пенальти Баджо), «Пьяченца»-«Милан» 0:2 (Дезайи – Симоне), «Милан»-«Лацио» 0:0, матч перенесённого игрового тура «Кальяри»-«Милан» 1:2 (Савичевич - Баджо со штрафного удара), «Наполи»-«Милан» 0:1 (Пануччи), «Торино»-«Милан» 1:1 (Мальдини), «Милан»-«Фиорентина» 3:1 (Савичевич - Баджо с пенальти – Симоне, Росси парировал пенальти от Руя Кошта), «Сампдория»-«Милан» 3:0, «Милан»-«Кремонезе» 7:1 (Веа 2 - Пануччи – Альбертини - Ди Канио 2 – Бобан)

Кубок УЕФА -

«Милан»-«Бордо» 2:0 (Эранио – Баджо со штрафного удара), 0:3

audelfina · 2 марта 2005

AC MILAN & FABIO CAPELLO, спасибо, класс!

Я и забыл, что Бастен столько забивал с пенальти (Шеве, небось, не дают бить), а главное, сколько этих пендалей в нашу пользу раздавали! Да-а, надо вспомнить, как работать с судьями.

KONDR · 2 марта 2005

Для знающих английский!

Это переводы историй из Forza Milan! В основном воспоминания Пелегатти. Очень советую.

I was thinking about having a sort of thread where we would post some interesting stories, anecdotes, stats or other interesting facts about Milan, in the 103 years of their glorious history. I will continuously post into this thread. If at any time, anyone of you people has any interesting fact/anecdote/story/stat to share with us, you're all more than welcomed!

First of all, I’d like to start with one anecdote that really amazed me more than probably anything in this thread. You all know the legendary Nils Liedholm, the great Swede, of the 50's of Milan. He was if you want, the Rijkaard of that time, but in even more dominating style, especially technically. Technically, few matched him and his passes were so spot on, so precise, that he never missed a pass. Actually he did miss one pass. It was 3 seasons after he joined Milan, I don’t remember the exact game, or the exact year, but all the old Milan fans are saying it, that at one time, at the San Siro, Liedholm missed a pass in midfield. He wanted to pass the ball to a teammate and instead, the ball went straight to an opponent. At that time, happened one of the most extraordinary moments ever lived in the San Siro, as related by the old timers. The crowd couldn't believe their eyes. In 3 full years, that Liedholm has been playing for Milan, no one could remember him making a bad pass. At that time, the whole San Siro gave Liedholm, one of the warmest and longest standing ovation ever witnessed in that great stadium. The opposition team was going nuts, not understanding what was going on!!!!The standing ovation lasted for 5 whole minutes !!!!Can you believe that???? A 5 minutes standing ovatin for having missed a pass!!!!

FORZA LIEDHOLM !!!

Here's another great anecdote, it goes back to the beginning of the Berlusconi era, in the summer of 1986. In one coup, Berlusconi signed Giovanni Galli and Giuseppe “Nanu” Galderisi, two pillars of La Squadra Azzura of the mid 80’s, plus Daniele Massaro, the defender, Dario Bonetti and the little jewel of Atalanta, Roberto Donadoni. On the last purchase of Donadoni, there’s a legend that people in Milano are still talking about how Berlusconi secured his services. The Atalanta club had and still has a very healthy relationships with Juve, for which Atalanta has allowed Juve to get the following players such Sciera, Cabrini, Fanna, Prandelli, Marocchino but also Solda, Pacione, Magrin, Mirkovic, Vieri and Montero lately. But Berlusconi was in love with Donadoni’s style, and he believed Donadoni to be” the only Italian player able to illuminate the San Siro”.

Here’s how Berlusconi beat all the odds and Juve’s great relationship with Atalanta. Donadoni was on the verge of signing for Juve. That was the very first coup that made it clear that Berlusconi was “one who gets whatever he wants and that even mighty Juve couldn’t resist”. During a high-class party, in his luxurious palace of Arcore, he invited the two Bortolotti, Achille Bortolotti, the father and Cesare the son, the two bosses of Atalanta. In that party, Berlusconi didn’t receive the Atalanta supremos as in a formal way: he received them while wearing his tracking field suit. He had also invited some of his most beautiful ladies from his TV station Italia 1. The wine was flowing freely and the ladies were beautiful and the atmosphere great. To make a long story short, at the end of the party, Berlusconi went to see Bortolotti senior, and gave him a blank cheque, telling him with a large smile: “This is for Donadoni, you name your price”. The Bortolotti were simply puzzled, and that is to put it very mildly.

After this high class evening, the next day, the Bortolotti called a press conference telling about Donadoni’s sale to Milan, in a very enthusiastic tone: “We have never ever encountered anyone like Berlusconi! He has a force, energy extraordinary. And how about the numerous gorgeous ladies…”. He went on to say: “He just made us an offer we simply could not refuse.” Juve had to simply give up on Donadoni and Berlusconi's charisma…then the legend started...

Did you know: that Milan are still the most titled team at the international level? Milan have won 13 international titles, in front of Real Madrid with 12 and Bayern with 12.

FORZA VECCHIO CUORE ROSSONERO!

rom the Forza Milan! Issue of January 2000, about the Centenary of Milan, related by the grandissime Carlo Pellegatti. I have translated it from Italian to English. Enjoy is all I can say!

100 Years Of Victories, by Carlo Pellegati

The ball in the net, players with the Rossonero jersey that are hugging each other, the fans going wild in the stadium. Victory! 100 years have passed, we are in the year 2000, incredible! And the sky of the world, maybe a little bit less polluted before, today a little bit less blue, has seen these scenes of celebrations over and over again, that all have one common name:Milan!

Let us go back in time, in that famous April 14th, 1901, date of the very first victory of Milan's history. The game is held at the Trotter of Piazza Doria, in Milano, the game is between Milan and Mediolanum, already a type of derby. The boys, won 2-0, with goals from Davies and Lies in the very first match of the history of Il Diavolo. Three weeks later, on May 05th, 1901, at the Ponte Carega in Genoa, Milan beat the heavy favorites of Genoa to win their first ever Scudetto.

Let us remain in the beginning of the century. A group of Milanisti went on to create another team, Internazionale. The very first derby in the league was held on January 10th, 1909, at the Civic Arena. Let us imagine a great public in that stadium. In the Curva Sud, let us imagine that the ancestors of the current Fossa dei Leoni, to galvanize and incite the team. Milan scores thanks to Trerè II, then Inter ties with Malcher. Lana and Laich give Milan a 3-1 lead, but we all know that the derbies are rich of suspense. Schuller scores for Inter, all out to attack in the end to tie the game, but in vain, as Radice, the Milan's keeper is doing a great job until the end and Milan wins the first ever derby 3-2.

Milan becomes great again in the beginning of the 1950's, when the Serie A makes its official debuts, as we know it. I now let Giorgio Fattori, as he shares with us the emotions of Gunnar Nordhal, in his book, "Oro e Campi Verdi", as he tells us, the very first great result of this reborn Milan: their 7-1 victory, in Torino against Juventus, on February 05th, 1950. Juve went onto win the Scudetto at the end of that season.

"...I still want to remember that match, that I consider to be my best in Italy. In Torino, against Juventus, 7-1. That day, I scored 3 goals, but my record in Italy is 4, against Triestina and Atalanta ( however, in a game in the Swedish league, i scored once 7 goals!), For a strange reason, my best memories of the Italian league are against Juventus, as in each match against them, i played at my very best of my possibilities." (Gunnar Nordhal).

Another match between Juventus and Milan, that the long timers will never forget, was held on November 16th, 1958 in Torino. The Milan of Altafini, Bean, Grillo and Schiaffino, in the bench, Bonizzoni and Viani. It's an incredible match! The Rossoneri score 3 goals in 33 minutes, with Grillo, Galli and Altafini. Boniperti, just before the half time score for Juve, then Corradi bring the home team within one. Altafinia scores the 4th goal, but Charles and Sivori tie the game in the last minutes of the game at

4-4 that seems to be the final score, when Grillo, with a deadly parabola scores at the 90th minute, the winning goal. It would have been marvelous, fantastic screaming at the microphone of a radio...10, 20, 30 times!

We have mentionned important victories in the league as far as emotions go, but let us spend some time on the very first international victory of Milan, that will forever leave its incredible trace all over the world: Milan-Benfica, finale of the Champions Cup in 1963, in Wembley, London. I still remember myself, a 13 years old kid, glued at the vitrine of an electronics store, which had put a black and white television, which was transmitting the game from the...swedish television, as Rai had incredibly not scheduled the finale of the Champions Cup! However, my father, he had taken the plane for the first time of his life, to be with the boys in London. The boys made us suffer in the first half. Eusebio scores for the Portguese side and the time flies by, Rocco changes the tactics, but the tying goal doesn't come. Then, suddenly, everything changes. Altafini, inspired by Rivera, under the guidance of Dino Sani. Milan ties the game. Then, the winning goal comes at the end, logically, may i add, with a great run, from midfield and then, it finishes in the net thanks to Altafini's scoring instincts. The Milan captain, Cesare Maldini, at the end of the game, in that far away but vivid and glorious 22nd of May 1963, can embrace the cup in his hands, the first Champions Cup of Milan's history, but also of Italian football.

Now, i want to tell you about not a victory, but of the match most..it's not easy defining it: strange or if you prefer, incredible of the past 40 years. It didn't happen to a lot of fans who have left the San Siro with a great win and end up at home, with a ...tie. But yes, it did happen to me and to all those present at the San Siro, in this day of 16th of October 1966. The game in question is Milan-Lazio. Bagatti scores for Lazio, Rosatto ties it at the 52nd minute, and then, Rivera offered us the winning goal, 5 minutes from the end. The referee Angonese whistles the end of the match. I leave the San Siro to go home with my father, happy of this nice win. When I arrive at home, my mother was expecting us, with the habitual sunday Chocolate feast and she said:"Too bad for tying the game in the very last minute." "No mother, I answer, look Rivera scored the winning goal, we have won!". "No, it ended tied". I had seen with my eyes the players leaving the field. What had happened? The ref had whistle the end of the game in a premature way. So he had to call all the players back on the field. Some players were already under the shower and they had to dress again to come on the field to play an extra 5 minutes! And 2 minutes from the end of this extra 5 minutes, Bagatti scored the 2-2 goal!

Nereo Rocco comes back to Milan and as a result, so do the great triumphs internationally and the great achievements. Let us now spend some time on one of the most memorable nights of Milan's history. Madrid, May 28th, 1969, finale of the Champions Cup between Milan and Ajax. An old plane had taken my dad and I, along other Milanisti such as the Di Floriani twins, the founders of the Milan Club Donne Rossonere (Women Milan Fan Club), my friend Luigi Puricelli and other Milan Fan Clubs such as sthe Milan Club Forlanini at the Santiago Bernabeu, where Rivera and Prati, offered us an extraordinary and unforgettable evening. I had a seat very close to the field and i was able to taste and appreciate from close range, to Gianni's (Rivera) finesse, and the three goals of Pierino (Prati). At the end of the match, i couldn't resist and I also went onto the field, with loads of other Milanisti in a complete state of transe. It was my first and only invasion of a football field...without a microphone.

During the 70's, I remember two particular victories: the first one is the 3-2 win against Inter, on the 27th of November of 1971. One could very well and rightfully ask:"What's the big deal about beating Inter?. The answer is simple: never has Milan beaten Inter in the last 5 minutes, with an anthological goal from Albertino Bigon, after having casually intercepted an Inter attack. Another unforgettable result, the biggest win of Milan in Serie A, is the 9-3 win over Atalanta, on October 15th, 1972. The Milan attack was composed of Bigon, Benetti, Prati, Rivera, Chiarugi. The San Siro board was filled, to say the least with the 3 goals of Pierino, Rivera and Bigon, each scoring 2 and the goals of Chiarugi and Benetti.

Two other results at the end of this same decade (70's) are still in my mind as if they were yesterday. The victory in another derby, with goals from Maldera and Braglia, in the very hot night of July 03rd, 1977 (finale of Coppa Italia) and a very emotional 2-1 win over Verona, in the year of the 10th Scudetto. Yes, on April 22nd, 1979, the Gialloblu of Verona, were causing us another bad moment, after having prevented us from winning our 10th scudetto 5 years ago. At half time, the atmosphere was filled with doubts, and memories of old nightmares with Verona in the past, then, Rivera, changed it all, few minutes after the start of the 2nd half, but the goal of delivrance, the one that offered us the 10th Scudetto arrived only 6 minutes from the end, thanks to Novellino.

The first half of the 80's, is marked by one vivid image: Mark Hately, during the afternoon of October 28th, 1984, jumps higher than Collovati and with a tremendous header, beats Inter's goal-keeper, Walter Zenga. From then on, I would like to have only one quality: that of being able to synthesize and summarize everything. Yes because after 1987, Milan won eveything and more; unforgettable matches, extraordinary successes, irrepetible and unmatchable achievements with the signature of Silvio Berlusconi. A huge joy for the deprived Rossonero people, was offered by Daniele Massaro, on May 22nd, 1987, in the play-off spot for the UEFA cup, between Milan and Sampdoria. The winning goal arrived at the 106th minute, in overtime. The goal was beautiful, but the party and celebrations of the after game, in that hot afternoon in Torino were unforgettable.

The following season saw a stratospheric Milan against Napoli, at the San Siro, 4-1, in a match that officially and definitely crowned Gullit as the new king of Serie A; a Milan of an embarrassing superiority over Inter in the derby won 2-0, with goals from Gullit and Virdis; an emotionally unforgettable and incredible Milan when in Napoli, on May 01st, 1988, along the applauses and standing ovation at the end of the game by the Napoli public, they beat Maradona and and co 3-2, winning in the same time, the Scudetto. What an afternoon! What a finale of the season with my friends Susini, Taveggia, Serafini, celebrating with the boys, screaming in the mic, hugging and kissing the boys at the end of the match! And the 1000's of Milanisti present that day, can all say:"I was there!". And i'm sure that these same fans, were also there, on April 19th, 1989, at the San Siro, for this epic Champions Cup 1/2 final 2nd leg against Real Madrid, where the boys, led by an archi-dominating Carlo Ancelotti in midfield, gave a lesson of football not only to Real Madrid, but to all of the world, by destroying Real 5-0! I'm also certain that those who were there, were also present a month later, at the Nou Camp, in Barcelona, where the boys accompagnied by the biggest movement of fans, not only in the history of football, but of all sports with a massive 90, 000 fans going to Barcelona by all means, (plane, train, bus, cars, motorcycles, boat, etc..) to see Milan destroy Steaua Bucarest, 4-0 in an incredible and monumental performance. That performance was acclaimed worldwide and the biggest acclaim came from France's leading daily sports paper, L'Equipe, the next day with this comment:" We knew the game of football, before yesterday. We have just witnessed and discovered the football of Milan, a football that will change the face of this game in the future. A team of Extraterrestrials" .

During the 1990's, the achievements of Capello and of his players have all now become a myth and a legend, but among all of these, two remain in my mind and heart more than any other. The one that really puts me in a total state of joy is the fantastic match on May 18th, 1994, in Athens, in the final of the Champions Cup against the heavy favorits of Barcelona. On that day, Milan are playing Cruyff's impetuous Barcelona, the heavy favorites, without Baresi and Costacurta! It was a pure triumph on every aspect:the triumph of the class, of the perseverance, of the "carattere", of the tactics and stratgey put forth by the master mind of Capello. The result is without the doubt of any shadow: 4-0 in another one of those magical nights, made in Magico Milan.

Another date that will always remain in my mind and heart of the 90's, is one that not a lot of people will remember, but it will remain nonetheless in the archives of football history, and also in the future of football's history, is the 27th of February of 1994. In that day, Seba Rossi beat the old record of Dino Zoff of the most minutes not conceeding a goal. Zoff's record was an incredible 903 minutes! Seba pulverized it and took it to a place unreachable by reaching 929 minutes! At around 16:00, Sebastiano Rossi, against Foggia beat that record, with 929 minutes. Meditate about that people! I am certain that your grandsons, will be asking you, 40 years from now: "Were you there 40 years ago, when Rossi beat the record of most minutes without conceeding a goal? A record that has still not been beaten!" And that question, i will be asking you all in...2034!

In closing of these indelebile memories, i want to spend some time on the latest great moment, notably the Milan-Empoli of May 16th, 1999. Not so much for the easy victory (4-0), but for the emotions, for the anxiety around it, with the Milan fans, with one ear in the radio to follow the result of Fiorentina-Lazio and the other, at the San Siro. Milan overcame Lazio on that 2nd last day of the season. Overcoming Lazio was an incredible and unforgettable feat by the boys. It seemed impossible and so far away at the beginning of the match, yet the score is 1-1 between Fiorentina and Lazio! "Sorpasso...Sorpasso!" as the people in the stadium and around the world were chanting! (Sorpasso means overcoming, passing in front of another team). "Sorpasso", a word that has cost dearly to Milan in the past on numerous occasions, but that this time, in this afternoon, however, becomes a liberatory and deliverance word!

Milan has ended the century with another Scudetto, the 16th. Another fantastic achievement, a crowning of 100 absolutely exceptional years. Or even better, normal. Yes, because for Milan, it is normal winning; yes, because they are, our dear, old, grand, Magico Milan!

FORZA MAGICO MILAN!"

Carlo Pellegatti.

Here comes some more, courtesy of Lorena aka Nightfire99 @ Devilsmania. Muchas gracias Lorena!!!Sei una

Giuseppe Meazza, the great Italian forward (but interista!) passed to Milan after having an illness called 'frozen foot' (he also joined juventus) When he trained, he was covered by 'layers' of wool to avoid the foot from lowering temperature.

Starting the century, Milan was the low-class team, of cab drivers and train engineers. There was a train called Gamba de Legn (wooden foot) that passed by Porta Vittoria (old Milan camp then, Milan played near the graveyard). If the driver was milanista, he passed by honking and waving his hands.

Inter was born from a group of Milan fans who wanted more foreign players in the team. (they got their wish hahahahahaha ) They did so in a Monday morning 'because the week has to start properly' (pigs...) The 'stemma' (shield) was that FCIM thingy they still have today, and old Milanisti laughed at them: "La societa che gh'a el distintiv che se poo minga legg" (the team that has the unreadable symbol )

Altafini arrived to Italy sure of being a Roma player. But in the test he did, he colapsed and fainted. Gipo Viani - the great Milan manager of the time- saw that and started saying to other managers that Josè was epileptic. Roma refused the Brazilian and Milan got him.

The champions of 68 were really a strange bunch: Rivera had had a great championship but was out of the European final, Rosato had recently arrived from Torino, still he was remembered as the kicker of East German Konietzka rather than a classy defender,

Cudicini and Sormani were injured at the back, Hamrin seemed to be finished (at Fiorentina they were trying to sell him since 1966), Prati was topscorer... in serie C, Malatrasi 'discarded' by Inter (Tee hee hee hee never one good move ) But the results arrived, and Rocco was right at the end: scudetto, Cup Winners Cup, Champions Cup, Intercontinental.

Kilpin, the founder, kicked young Renzo de Vecchi in the buttocks to make him run! When in Turin, any time his squad (he started playing in a Turin club) got a goal against, he took a bottle from behind the goalpost, gulped the whisky and gave to young Vittorio Pozzo: 'Have a drink'.

The saying is he founded Milan as a vengeance over Genoa, which won over Internazionale Torino (old Turin club) in the championship: "I'll make a club that will be as a devil for you"

Maldini's story as a juve fan was told by himself in a sympathetic book that tells his story. President Boniperti - a player himself in the 1950's- sent him a juve shield, a pin-up, with father Cesare.

And the great Rivera would have been bianconero (sssssssssshiverrrrrrrrrr) had he costed less. 500000 lire in 1959 were too much, the advocate Gianni Agnelli (yes, the same as today!) said he'd buy him JUST TO MAKE HIM PLAY IN HIS GARDEN!!!!!!!! Franco Pedroni, the Alessandria trainer (the club where Rivera started) went purple with rage when the offer went down to... 2500 lire!!!!!!! He spoke to Viani and he suggested a test game. On May 14, 1959 Rivera became a Milan player. At 15, 500000 lire plus three players.

Season 59-60 Alessandria-Milan 3-0. Liedholm (yep, the one of the standing ovation! he's called 'Barone', Baron) marks Rivera. The youngster sends the ball OVER THE SWEDE'S HEAD and Tacchi pushes to goal. Second half. 'Liddas' encounters Rivera, he decides not to be conned, when he tries to cover the ball Rivera DOES A TUNNEL UNDER THE SWEDE'S FEET and sends... who else... Tacchi to goal!!!

At the end, both shake hans with a farewell: 'See you at Milano'

Both Nereo Rocco and Gianni Rivera scorde AGAINST Milan, the Parón (patron) with Triestina (1933), the Golden Boy with Alessandria (1959?)

Even more and more!!!Kudos to you Lorena!!!!

In the 1930's came to Milan a player called Piero Pastore. Good player, but also... part-time actor!! He went to juventus afterwards, but always with cinema at heart.

2) Milan-Galatasaray, at Turkey. No water, the tubes are frozen. Ghezzi has a cramp attack, to help him warm up there's nothing but... the liquid substance used in antidoping controls...

Dino Sani, number 10 of Boca Juniors, arrived. Manager Gipo Viani had told Rocco he'd brought a great player... indeed, when he saw a bald, moustached guy, tiny and stocky that said'good afternoon, pleased to mett you, I'm Dino Sani" he almost fainted, he thought it was a joke! The afternoon at Milanello, he broke out: "We've broght an accountant!" "Our Gipo has brought back his grandpa" At saturday, he thought that maybe he had to risk using the 'grandpa'. He did. Milan won over juventus, best player in the field, Milan victory

Prati, very young, arrives from a loan with long hair, hippie-like shirt, ye-ye hairdo, rings in every finger. Rocco sees him and exclaims: "I had asked for a player, not a singer" Prati went red and assured he'd do everything to show he was a worthy player.

Prati was called Ringo, 'cos he walked as a cowboy and also had rings in all fingers. In the little fingers he had two, given to him by his mother, and considered lucky (did he took em to Madrid? )

8) Gunnar Nordhal arrived to Milan by train. Getting neared he heard shouts, chants, flags. He gets allarmed: a political march? No, the Rossoneri greeting him! So many that, in the urge to see him, they broke the train's windows, throwing flowers, waving pieces of paper. Nordhal panickes. He demanded to go to the hotel and shuts himself in his room, fearing he had picked the wrong squad and country. Some days after, he scores his first goal (against Pro Patria, I recall) and forgot his fear.

Intercontinental Milan-Estudiantes. Not a soccer game, a butchery indeed. Maldera enters and Rocco conseils him to stick to his target. But he stays very far. Rocco calls him"I told you to get close, you silly" and Maldera, scared "I can't, sir, he's poking me" Madero, his target, had a nail with which he poked his marker.

Mario David, defender, was at pains with a Mantova winger. Rocco screamed his lungs out with him. Going to the dressing room, he complains again, David answered he thought he was exaggeating, Rocco then kicks an object that was under the massaging bed. Silence. How strange, many think, it's not his style. One day passed and then the players saw Rocco coming lame to train, with a HUGE thumb and a slipper in his foot. He had kicked the medicine weights!!!

The massagist Tresoldi dosed wine around the tables when at dinner or lunch. He often stopped at Rivera and Rosato's table, so Rocco call out to them "Hey, learn from the 'tedesco' (German, that was Schnellinger) he only drinks milk!" When nobody was around, he called the twosome to his table and dosed another glass to them personally.

"Milan-Lewski 5-1, Malatrasi on the ground, with a big cut in the leg, a broken leg protector. Nereo Rocco calls the ref: you protect us or we'll retaliate. The ref was French and answered:

"Monsieur Roccó, s'il vous plait...

" Hey, you assface.... s'il vous plait for you too !!!!!!!!! "

At Manchester, Man Utd meets Milan

Denis Law elbows Rosato and luxates his teeth. Santin replaces him, Law goes for him but Santin hides down and receives the elbow in front. Nothing grave for him. Doctor Monti, however, didn't return from half-time because he was helping Rosato. He returns up and sees Cudicini on the floor.

Rocco says: doc, the long one fell. I see, said Monti. He's fallen all by himself, adds Rocco. Cudicini was hit by a metal part in his head. Only replacement, Wiliam Belli, then 19. Monti helps Cudicini to return to play. Rocco then says to Monti: told you it wasn't as grave. He fell by himself!

When at Milan the group was distracted and sad, Rocco got a helping hand in Bruno Mora, passed by his staying place and made a sign for him to start.

Mora was a dandy, a bit of a ladies'man and single, so he started a long dissertation about being single: how happy I am that I'm free, with soo many beautiful ladies...who says that a wife... ecc ecc. His married teammates looked at him in astonishment, then angry. And then insulted him. At that point, Rocco stood up: hey, Bruno, how dare you! He always ended up 'telling off' Mora while the player looked sorry, but then, Milan had returned to be a group in harmony and goodwill as the Paròn wanted it to be.

KONDR · 2 марта 2005

This thread is primarily dedicated for anecdotes about Milan, but I feel that putting here also some of the greatest games ever of Milan is also a good addition to it, since it's all about our proud and extremely rich history. Here goes the first great game, related by the most passionate Milan fan in the whole Universe, the Legendary Carlo Pellegatti, the "Voice" of Milan for the past 15-16 years. Enjoy!

The games of Legend.

From time to time, i will translate articles from Carlo Pellegati, that appear on Forza Milan!, on some of the Historic matches of Milan that will forever be remembered in the glorious and rich Milan History, as the games of Legend.

The first game of that long serie is where the domination of the Berlusconi era all began. So let's us recapture the moment, the thrills, the emotion and the olé of the moment. Let's set up the setting: Stadio San Siro, Sunday 03 January 1988, at 14.30. The game is between Milan and Napoli. The mighty Napoli of Diego Maradona, the defending Serie A champions. A game in which, the defending Serie A champions were given a memorable football lesson and swpet away like amateurs and in which we assisted in a way, to a kind of where the current kings, Maradona and Napoli, were dethroned by the new kings, namely Milan and Gullit.

This is THE game, the beginning of the Legend. No one could forget this Milan-Napoli, one of the most beautiful, spectacular, thrilling matches ever seen at the San Siro. A real fireworks, directed by the "one-who-turned-utopia-into-reality": Mr. Arrigo Sacchi with an immense, fantastic protagonist: Ruud Gullit, who was given, by the San Siro tiffosi, one of the most unforgettable standing ovation of the story of the San Siro.

It was the beginning of January of 1988. Milan was 5 points behind Napoli. (At that time, a win was 2 points and not 3 points). Maradona arrived only one day before the game, after having spent his New Year's holidays in Argentina. The Milan players prepared with lots of attention this crucial game. The 77, 000 tiffosi saluted warmly Marco Van Basten, who was still recovering from an injury, promised his fans to be back soon, with a microphone from the centre of the football field. Everything was ready and we were set for an unforgettable afternoon of football. After 10 minutes, Napoli took the lead with a great goal by Careca which completely froze the San Siro.

That was just what the boys needed in order to get them even more pumped up. From then on, Milan took total control of the game, monopolising the ball in a very harmonic, fluent and sublime way. The defence, with a quartet more famous now than the Beatles with Tassotti and Maldini with the guitars, Filippo Galli at the Basse and Baresi as the lead person, to dictate the pace at the Battery, singing "A Taste of Honey", as the afternoon becomes warmer when Colombo beat Garella, the Napoli keeper and equalized at the 20th minute of the first half. Everyone knows that the Milan coach wants the intensity and the fierce determination to always accompany the will to marvel and to entertain. The boys insisted their incessant pressure and the veteran Virdis took the lead. But the final minutes of the first half saw a spectacularly dominant Milan that the Napoletani players coudn't resist, except their keeper Garella who single-handedly kept them in the game in more than one occasion.

In the second half, the Gullit show began. He set the San Siro into fire with his sparkles of genius due to his sheer class. The Tulipano, Nero, is outrageously unstoppable; his dreadlocks have now entered in the history, or rather myth, enlightening the pitch with his out of this world talent and warming the hearts of all the 77, 000 tiffosi at the San Siro, but also of all the football fans, on that cold winter day. After 20 minutes of play in the 2nd half, Ruud receives a great through ball and goes straight towards Garella, goes past him and deposits the ball in the empty net. Gullit's joy and excitement on the celebration of that goal is contagious and the whole San Siro explodes with loud roar of joy. Vladimir Caminiti, of Tuttosport wrote:" The Dutch Superman totally eclipsed and overshadowed the Divine Argentine". Before the end of this recital of football, Donadoni put the icing on the cake by scoring the final goal of a memorable match won 4-1 by the rossoneri.

Sacchi, as a perfect maestro, just before the end of the game, substituted Gullit 8 minutes from time. Everyone of the 77, 000 tiffosi present at the San Siro stood up as after a concerto directed by the great Riccardo Muti at the Scala of Milano. Two minutes of non-stop clapping towards the new idol of the Milan of Berlusconi, who later went on to say:" There was no need to play that game to demonstrate that Gullit is the best player in Europe." In this day, i repeat, was born the Milan of the Legend, the Milan that in 10 years won everything; rather the appropriate word in that case would be conquer, as winning is very limitative as a verb. That team conquered the most incredible records, the most magnificient and convincing triumphs, and making history as one of the best teams ever, if not the best team ever to embrace a football pitch. Everything started at the San Siro, in this afternoon, in this unforgettable sunday of January.

FORZA MAGICO MILAN!

Memories of Belgrade, By Carlo Pellegatti.

The Gods help their chosen sons, their prefered heroes. It has always been the case, from the times of Omer and what I am about to share with you here, is truly an Omeric, epic, historic, drammatic and emotional adventure. But first, we have to go back in Time 14 years, on the 8th of November 1988, when the Rossoneri left Malpensa, the international airport of Milano, direction Belgrade. Milan has to play the 2nd leg of the 1/8th finals of the 1988-89 Champions Cup against this Red Star team that managed to tie it 1-1 at San Siro in the first leg. It is a difficult task, as the Yougoslavs have a very competitive and strong team and also due to the fact that a lot of Milan players were not at top physical conditions. Indeed, the precarious conditions had already affected the team in the first leg where Sacchi had to deal with the following: Maldini out due to his military service, Baresi with an ankle problem, Donadoni and Ancelotti with knee problems. In the first leg, Virdis tied the game after the early goal by Stojkovic for Belgrade, but after that, despite some good scoring chances, Milan didn't manage to beat the Red Star keeper Stojanovic. So everyone leaves for Belgrade on that tuesday of November, with a lot of anxiety and tension. Milan risks to go out of the Champions Cup prematurely, a competition from which Milan had been away for too long. Compared from the first leg, Capitan Stubing Sacchi ( for the younger fans, this is an allusion to Capitan Stubing, who's the capitan of the ship from the tv serial "Love Boat") manages to recuperate Chico Evani, but has to renounce at Ruud Gullit, who goes to Yougoslavia as a simple tourist, due to a muscular problem.

The Maracana, the stadium of Belgrade, receives me with the grey colour that envelops everything here. The city is grey, the people's face reflects a kind of sadness, depsite the electrifying atmosphere of a Champions Cup match. I get off the bus reserved for the press, anxious, tense and concentrated like the players. Around 1500 people came from Milano, some by bus, others by special planes. Here I am, in my corner, lost in that huge Maracana, among all these Red Star fans with their flags and their banners with my hope to see a Milan like the one I saw at Napoli on May 1st 1988 (the day when Milan beat Napoli 3-2 in Napoli and surpassed them in the Serie A standings to go onto to win the 1st Scudetto of the Berlusconi era), in fact a strong Milan in a desperate situation. Speaking of desperation, I was slowly filled by desperation when I saw a very solid and concreete Red Star team controlling the match without any big efforts. For the Yougoslavs, a 0-0 draw would have sufficed to get through to the next round, the 1/4 finals and everything seems so easy for the players in Red and White, when Virdis was sent off by the referee Pauly. It is cold, very cold and then, a could, almost like a nebula, covers the whole stands. It is not something temporary, it is for good and lasting, it covers everything, the stands, the fans, the field and the players. Everything. The heavy silence of the crowd and the thick blinding cloud is only transperced and torn by a big roaring in the stands, from our left side, and I imagine it is due to a goal scored for Red Star, by Savicevic, the one that will become, the unforgettable "Carezze del Montenegro", scoring the goal that gives the lead for the Stella Rossa.

It seems to be over for us. The Ragazzi play with 10 men, 1 goal down and I don't have any hopes left because I am too depressed, and that the cloud is becoming bigger and bigger, just like a nebula. At one time, at half time, I look at my left and I am left speechless and moved. I will never forget this moment, worthy of a passage of the Stephen King books, this sensation and feeling only felt by the characters of the film "Fog". From above, the Gods, friends of Milan, are throwing down on the stadium, big black clouds with heavy snow, as if Eolo, the God of the Winds, was sweeping all the air from Hell towards the Maracana stadium of Belgrade. In a very short period of time, we couldn't see anything, absolutely nothing. Players and the ref enter onto the pitch, but the game was suspended. And to be replayed from start the next day, November 9th, at 13.00.

The joy and happiness for the danger just escaped is mixed with a general confusion for the 200 tifosi that didn't bring with them a lot of money, since it was supposed to be a one day stop and back onto the plane to home right after the game. The cold of the Belgrade evening is even more harmful, and there were no more hotels or motels available and it was only due to the miraculous intervention of Paolo Taveggia, the one who became the "Moses" of the twentieth Century for having organized, a few months later the exodus of 80, 000 tifosi from Italy to Barcelona, but also thanks to the collaboration of the head of the Italian press, Guido Susini, the tifosi were able to find an hotel to spend the night before the game of the next day. The cost of the entire operation rose to about 40 million Lire (around US $40,000) that Milan generously and graciously paid.

In the meantime, in another hotel, the Milan medical staff was working hard in order to heal the foot of Ruud Gullit. Without Virdis, sent off, and "Terminator" Ancelotti, suspended for a yellow card, it was vital to recuperate at all costs Il Tulipano Nero (The Black Tulip, Gullit). The two Milan doctors, Monti and Tavana were massaging relentlessly the suffering muscles in order to have Ruud at the very least on the bench. A pale sun warms the few Milan tifosi present at the Maracana, but a great performance from the Boys literally fills them up of joy. It is another Milan compared to 24 hours ago. Franco Baresi plays the best game of his legendary career. He plays almost in front of the defence, guiding all the Rossoneri attacks. After 5 minutes of play, after a shot from Lupetto Mannari, the ball ends up in the net. "Goal, it's a goal!" I scream at the microphone, when I see the ball, going at least by a metre beyond the white line. A Yougoslav player, Sabanadzovic, clears the ball away and the referee, Pauly, says:"No goal, keep on playing!". Incredible! At the 34th minute, a free-kick in the left from Donadoni is sent into the net by "Guido Cavalcanti" Van Basten. The Milan lead will however, not last long, only 4 minutes: Stojkovic ties the game beating Giovanni Galli. Milan dominates. Mannari seems an unstoppable little devil today; the 4 Intouchables of Elliot Ness Baresi are simply fantastic.

At the 43rd minute, the dramma. Vasilijevic and Donadoni go for an aerial challenge and the Red Star player elbows hard the Milan player who loses conscious while still in the air. He falls heavily on the ground. One of the Milan doctors, Dr. Monti intervenes and performs a mouth-to-mouth on him to prevent the player from suffocating. Donadoni is lying unconscious on the grounds and his legs are moving while in the air, almost as if they were kicking something, in a very unnatural way, this is another imagine I will never forget. Fortunately, "Luci a San Siro" (Lights at San Siro, Donadoni's nick, given to him after Berlusconi qualified as being the only Italian able to light up the San Siro) resumes breathing. Gullit replaces him, playing a great match doing lots of sacrifices for the team. After the game, Gullit would be away from the field for about 40 days because his muscles problems only worsened after the game. The game ends tied at 1-1. We go to the dreadful lottery sessions of the penalty kicks. More emotions to come. Stoijkovic scores, "Mahatma" Baresi ties it. Prosinecki scores and Van Basten ties it again. Galli accomplishes the miracle on Savicevic and Evani, with his magical left foot gives the lead to the Rossoneri. Now it's Giovanni Galli's turn again. In front of him, stands Mrkela. Galli jumps and enters into the legend stopping the Red Star player's shot. Now, it's the turn of "Uragano Frankie" (Hurricane Frankie) Rijkaard). His shot is tense, in the corner and unstoppable. Milan wins and goes to the next round, the 1/4 finals and I join the ragazzi in the dressing rooms hugging them all.

The journalists also have had to deal with the lack of hotels and have to manage somehow to spend the night with us. I shared my room with Xavier Iacobelli, at that time, a young chronicher at "La Notte", now directore of "Corriere dello Sport". We are all happy, it's been an incredible adventure. But it is not finished. How is Donadoni doing? Doctor Tavana insists that further controls be performed on him. We found out that he has his jaw fractured, and while on the stretcher, inconscious, hit by stomach cramps and nausea typical of cerebral incidents, he was vomiting constantly, , making Dr. Tavana very anxious. In fact, what Roberto has is a small "edema" on his head that is quickly healed with therapy. When Donadoni finds out that Milan qualified for the next round, he cries. Sacchi pays him a visit in his hospital room, giving him the best wishes of the whole team. The player leaves Belgrade six hours later after the rest of the Milan delegation, in a plane, courtesy of Europe Assistance.

What would remain of the grave injury of Donadoni? Fortunately, for him, nothing, but to football, a lot. Indeed, because as a result of this almost near fatal incident, the Milan medical staff adopts a new resolution: from that day, on every game of Milan, at the San Siro, there's always an anesthetist present. And today, due to a law passed in 1990, after this dramatic experience, an anesthetist specialist is present on all the fields of Serie A.

First game on Wednesday 9 November 1988. Game suspended after 57 minutes due to fog and heavy snow with the score of 1-0 for Belgrade.

2nd game: Red Star - Milan 1-1 after 90 minutes, and after 120 minutes. 2-4 after pks for Milan.

Thursday 10 November 1988.

Red Star: Stojanovic, Najdoski, Vasilijevic, Sabanadzovic, Radovanovic, Juric, Ivanovic, Savicevic, Bursac (51' Mrkela), Stoikovic, Djurovic (73' Prosinecki). Coach: Stankovic.

Milan: G. Galli, Tassotti, P. Maldini, Rijkaard, Costacurta, Baresi, Donadoni (45' Gullit), A. Colombo, Van Basten, Evani, Mannari (115' Cappellini). Coach: Sacchi.

Ref: Pauly.

Penalty kicks:

Stoikovic: goal. Baresi: goal.

Prosinecki: goal. Van Basten: goal.

Savicevic: saved. Evani: goal.

Mrkela: saved. Rijkaard: goal.

World Club Cup. Milan-Estudiantes. Not a soccer game. Maldera comes to replace a highly injured teammate and Rocco stresses "get close to your man" Maldera is strangely away from him. Rocco calls him back, shouts out "what are you doing? I said, stick to your man!" Maldera, scared, said "Sir, I can't... e pinches!" Madero, his target, had a long wool needle which he stuck on Maldera's thigh whenever he got close to him...

March 1957,Viani's Milan on top, cousins at -8, Ferrero on the bench, that came from a 1-5 at the hands of Torino (yesss ) Viani jokes that he'll send the youth team. Benito Lorenzi, Inter forward nicknamed Poison, writes enraged to Guerin Sportivo on March 7, 1957 betting one milion to Inter: whoever loses will give it to charity. 70000 came and saw Milan advantage with a Gastone Bean goal (22') and the equalizer from Invernizzi (43') The milion? Angelo Moratti sent it to a foundation for the handicapped.

15th october 1956. Milan Padova, Appiani stadium: Padova wins 2-0, trainer Nereo Rocco. Viani, (Milan coach of the time) very shaken, gives his dimmission to President Rizzoli, who dismisses them and backs his trainer. The scudetto came on that very season.

1961. Milan Samp at San Siro stadium, Milan loses. Nereo Rocco, new trainer, resigns ("My sirs, I've taken the wrong squad, you have taken the wrong coach. This is your contract, goodbye, thank you ") Always Rizzoli commanding., that repeats his gesture with Viani: Milan is not used to change trainer when the season is running. That very same season arrives yet another scudetto.

1967.

Derby. Gianni Rivera scores, amid a protest from Inter players pointing out that the ball had bounced ouside the goal line. Rai TV operators have the idea of repeating the action at high speed (strangely it's called "slow motion") to see if it was a goal. It wasn't! but of course, the referee had said it was , and thanks to that 'goal non-goal' of Rivera, the goal replay was born!

Lorena

Mixer numbers.

Rivera, the archetype of number 10, debutted with #8, because Dino Sani owned that number.

Even if Baresi with Liedholm got number 6 on the enth scudetto year, the Baron was very superstitious and made him change numbers. At least on the season 86-87 he played with #4

Mythic Nereo Rocco almost always reserved a number for the last minute, most of times #11. But when preparing to play against Asparoukhov's Lewski Sofia, he changed the rule from #11 to # 1!!

He named the team from #2 to # 11 and left suspense until 20 minutes to playing time, between Cudicini and Belli. "Prepare their things, I'll think about it now".

He entered and exited the dressing room, amid the jokes and laughter of the rest of the players to the two goalies, always repeating "I haven't decided yet". He didn't realize that actually it was time to go up until Rivera, captain, askes "But this afternoon we play without a goalie?"

"What time is it?" Rocco demands. Silence. So he took the #1 and walked to Cudicini saying "Well, I'm sure I'll do a silly thing, but you play, only for a reason. Cos y'are tallie and for that Asparoukhov's head I **** on my pants"

Inter was born from a group of Milan fans who wanted more foreign players in the team. (they got their wish hahahahahaha ) They did so in a Monday morning 'because the week has to start properly' (what do they understand by 'proper start'? yoghurt and flakes? )The 'stemma' (shield) was that FCIM thingy they still have today, and old Milanisti laughed at them: "La societa che gh'a el distintiv che se poo minga legg" (the team that has the unreadable symbol )

1960's Milan-Padova, friendly. Rocco calls aside Trapattoni, "you see that number 8? " The Trap sees him, ready to bite on his legs. Rocco continues "Well, you touch him, I kill you" It was Bruno Rocco, his older son.

Altafini arrived to Italy sure of being a Roma player. But in the test he did, he colapsed and fainted. Gipo Viani - the great Milan manager of the time- saw that and started saying to other managers that Josè was epileptic. Roma refused the Brazilian and Milan got him.

Dane Johannes Ploeger, that together with John Hansen and Karl Praest got on juve's eye at the London Olyimpics of 1948, was contacted while he was arriving by train to Milano to sign for... Milan!!! Juve managers paid his manager and made him sign for juve, in a moment when mr Giannetti, Milan's manager, was sleeping his nap... under his very noses!

When Nordhal was at Milano, he wanted to speak to Umberto Trabattoni, then president, and his son in law, wily manager Toni Busini - ex milanista- and said: "I know two swedish players that will make their mark here at Milan. I suggest you to buy them"

Busini listened to the Fireman (after selling a non alcoholic drink, svagdrich, Nordhal worked at a firestation to earn a living) and took those Swedes. That were Gunnar Gren "the Professor", and Nils Liedholm "the Baron"

Il Pepe, Juan Alberto Schiaffino, is the only player ever to have taken his wife to the Italian National team's retirement. A polemic and ill-tempered player, he was also very money-conscious, somewhat mean. Milan was at an away game, Viani went to talk to him and asked him for a coffee. He refused. "Away games are at the society's charge" he reminded: no one was going to get HIM to pay a coffee!!

23-04-78, Milan-Verona, Franco Baresi debuts. At the end of the match, the Piscinin (little one) enters the dressing room and finds Rocco. 'Hey, silly, you played too?" At the time, the gap between the starting XI and youths was huge. And trainers made it felt: earn your grades, earn respect. His teammates just laughed and Franco... just wanted to hide somewhere.

Sacchi, arriving to Milan, asked his players to be addressed as Arrigo. Only two did: Virdis & Massaro. "Sorry Arrigo, this is not working", they usually said while training

First game for Maurizio Ganz with Milan. 5-0 for Milan, derby in Italian cup, 97/98, with Capello. (Coppa Italia is almost always a disaster for Inter, eh? )

He had just celebrated his third day of Milan air, and Ganz comes to the field. Inter gave him always a tribute: a flag which read "EL SEGNA SEMPER LÙ" (he always signs there) And he scored!!

As always... the flag appeared!!!... but this time, proud and cutting the air in the midst of the Curva Sud!!

Some boys play soccer in the street. One of the teams lacks a player. A bald man, a passer-by, over 50, came and asks to fill the place. "Better this than playing without one" So the boys picked him as a playing goalkeeper. First ball he took, he went up, jumps the whole rival squad, prepares and shoots a Scud-like shot that gets under the 7 of the goalpost, unseen for the other goalie.

The balding individual was none other than Giovanni 'Basletta' Lodetti, ex Milan winger and unknown to many youths at the time. (Now he comments at TeleLombardia and is far better known)

To illustrate the difference between his two most charismatic trainers, Liedholm & Rocco, Gianni Rivera said that the Paròn (Rocco) gave more responsibilities, the Baron was cooler and distanced. The difference he showed with this anecdote.distaccato e persino freddo. Ma la differenza la illustró cosí:

Rocco was late to arrival to the dressing roome and Altafini got the idea of doing a joke. He stripped and got into Rocco's closet, when the coach opened it, he jumped out yelling. Rocco stood there totally surprised and scared by a brief moment, then he began to yell insults at him. It was a rite: Altafini nude into the closet, Rocco that opens it, jump, yell, insults, laughter (Josè was very appreciated by Rocco because he took good humour to the dressing room)

Rocco went to Torino and Liedholm took his place. Altafini decided not to leave his joke undone, so off he went to the closet. Liedholm opens, Altafini jumps out yelling. General waiting (they were teammates in the 1950's Milan squads). But the Swede looks at him brows arched and says " Josè, this closet is mine, yours is over there"

This one is SO mythic - I can even imagine it -I recall it whenever I'm in a bad mood!!

ItalyGermany4to3. A Milanista game, if we count from the Schnellinger goal to that of Rivera. But a crazy game anyway.

Karl-Heinz Schnellinger, one goal in all his Milan career, did only one with Germany. He entered the penalty area for the first time: Inter and Italy 's captain back then, Facchetti, knew it. "What were you doing here?" And "Carlo" meekly answered " I was going to the dressing room, to avoid journalists..." And the German dressing room was BEHIND Albertosi's goalpost! The ball simply came to him, he didn't look for the goal!

He scores ("if I failed they'd eat me at home!") and a rain of reactions come from the Italian side. He recalls two: the stupefied question of Rosato: "Carlo but did you have to do it NOW?" and Rivera's tongue-in-cheek menace "I'll wait for you at Milano!" Both his teammates back home. But without that goal from "the Rock", there would have been no epic!

I close with a Chilean punch. At the Chilean WC 1962, Italy met Chile and lost (with ref's help)

Mario David received a Leonel Sánchez punch while fighting for a ball. Later Milan contacted Sanchez for a test. He's almost in Milan, he gets a room with... David! Shakehands, compliments, excuses, all forgotten. But then Universidad de Chile, his club, disageed with the payment and Sanchez stayed at home. The first Chilean ever to play at Milan didn't even debut in more than a friendly.

KONDR · 2 марта 2005

Here are some more stats, with all the Milan players who finished Capocanoniere or top scorer in Serie A.

1938-39 season: Aldo Bofi 19 goals.

1941-42 season: Aldo Bofi 22 goals.

1949-50 season: Gunnar Nordal 35 goals (the all time record).

1950-51 season: Gunnar Nordal 34 goals.

1952-53 season: Gunnar Nordal 26 goals.

1953-54 season: Gunnar Nordal 23 goals.

1954-55 season: Gunnar Nordal 27 goals.

1961-62 season: José Altafini 22 goals.

1967-68 season: Pierino Prati 15 goals.

1972-73 season: Gianni Rivera 17 goals.

1986-87 season: Pietro Virdis 17 goals.

1989-90 season: Marco Van Basten 19 goals.

1991-92 season: Marco Van Basten 25 goals.

1999-00 season: Andriy Shevchenko 24 goals.

Gunnar Nordal aka Il Pamperone (the firefigther), holds the record of most goals scored in one season of all time in Serie A, with 35 goals in the 1949-50 season. Also, worth mentionning among all those goleadors we've had in our long and rich history, are Aldo Bofi, who in 194 games for Milan, scored 136 goals. Il Barone, in 268 games scored 221 goals which is the most in Milan's history. Pieno Prati in 209 games scored 102 goals. The Golden Boy, Gianni Rivera scored 164 goals in 658 games for Milan!! Pietro Paolo Virdis, scored 75 goals in 184 games for Milan. As to Marco Unico, he scored 124 goals in 201 matches.

Stay tuned for more to come...

FORZA MAGICO IMMENSO MILAN!!!!

Ehrm... don't put so much pressure on me Payman boy -_-

I recall Fulvio Collovati receiving a stone in a game at Como (the 14th, lost by 0-2)... he was hated because of his 'lack of courage'. That year Baresi played a handful of games, because he was severely damaged by a blood infection that almost killed him.

Luigi Radice, Milan player of the 1960's, was the coach. He was nicknamed 'il tedesco' (the German) because he was stubborn and strict. With Torino he became champion in 1975, but at Milan he was told that the squad was bourgoise and lazy, so he started with harsh training. Joe Jordan and Walter Novellino, for example, were damaged: the Brazilian was destroyed by tiredness, the Shark didn't reach his true level but after the Radice era.

Well, Payman, on the 1st relegation, people that were heroes in the scudetto, like Albertosi, sold their performances to a bunch of mobsters that arranged games that, for me, is pure treason!!!

Anyway, on the 2nd one, when Napoli-Genoa played at Napoli, a draw would secure Genoa in serie A and Milan'd go down. Strangely, 5 minutes to the end, Genoa lost 2-1 and then, strangely, Faccenda did the goal with all the defense standing cold before him!! That goal (Milan won his game at Cesena) left Milan in serie B for the second time. Not saying it wasn't deserved... but that everything was against Milan back then

Here's a fabulous homage from the January issue of Forza Milan! on San Paolo, by the mithical Carlo Pellegatti. Enjoy is all I can say!

From the snow, ressurected a new Maldini

At 16 and a hafl years old, the current Milan captain debuted in Serie A, convocated surprisingly by Liedholm for the Udinese away game. A lucky start, preceeded by heavy snowing that had paralised Milano for the past 4 days. The swede coach was right from the very beginning:" He has a great tactical intelligence, he can go higher than his dad."

By Carlo Pellegatti.

It all began around 15:40 of this day of January 13th, 1985. Milan are downg 2-0 against Como at the San Siro. Corneliusson, Fusi, Matteoli, Guerrini and the other campagnons had guessed right in the type of shoes to wear on that frozzen and hard pitch, while the Rossoneri looked like slipping like the people on Holliday on Ice or the kids who are scatting on the frozzen lake of Gorky Park in Moscow. At the beginnning of the 2nd half, the temperature plunges below 0C and from the sky, fall a few snow floccons. We leave the stadium disappointed by the rare emotions that the Boys of Liedholm had been able to offer us. "Collo d'accio" (the nickname of Mark Hateley) and "Indiana Jones, the predator of the lost balls" Virdis have not been able to threaten Giulani, the Como keeper. The wisdom of Wilkins and the talent of Verza were not enough to warm the 45,000 die hard Milanisti present in the stands.

The snow increases in intensity. The streets around the stadium are already covered by a white rug. Slowly, very slowly, we get home, with a sigh of relief, we manage to park the car in the garage. Just on time. We won't be able to get the car out of the garage for the next 4 days!Yes, because Milano is covered, at times, suffocating due to the most incredible, longest and most intense snow storm in recent memories. From the grey sky, big floccons of snow are descending, descending, descending. The traffic is blocked. Only the metropolitana (the main highway in Milano) and the trains of Ferrovie Nord are functionning, while the few trams still in circulation are slipping almost too dangerously, almost in such a fashion that they do not seem to disturb the white silence that is envelopping the city. The players manage to reach Milanello only thanks to the bus put in their disposition by the club, that pick the players up each morning at the piazzale Lotto. In the Milan's training grounds, the only thing missing are the Russian Tundra and a few white bears to make it look like the North Pole.

With a lot of difficulty, the Milan ground-keepers manage to "clean-up" a football field of its snow coperture, in order to allow the team to prepare for the weeken'd's fixture at Udine. Since the beginning of the season, a player from the Primavera was training with the first team, a 16 years old kid, with an imposing name. A name that recalls a Champions Cup, won at Wembley, 22 years ago. Maldini. It's Paolo, the son of Cesare, captain of that fantastic Milan that made History. But already, people were only talking in a praising and lauding manner of this kid. His Serie A debut had speculated since October ( of 1984), against Cremonese. Liedholm, had already tried him in a friendly, in Cassano d'Adda and he seemed to be on the verge of setting him for his big debuts with the first team, but it had been postponed. All in all, it seems to be a bad week for the young prodigy. He has a hard time practicing on those frozen and hard surfaces, on the verge of praticability. Catello Cimminio, his roomate of the Primavera, had let him borrow his boots, more appropriate for those frozen fields, but they are too small for Paolino.

Paolo keeps on training despite the unbearable pain on his feet. By friday, the pain has become too difficult to support and his feet have marks that the small shoes had left on them. However, he doesn't say anything and doesn't complain. As it had already happen before, he is convocated among the group of players for the weekend's Serie A match, at Udine. The snow had slowed down a little, but everyone was wondering whether it would snow again? How to reach Udine in these conditions?? Those were some of the questions we had in mind at that time before departing for the game. I can certainly miss the radio coverage of the match, a pleasant habit for me, and I hope, for the Rossoneri tifosi that would remain besides their radio, suffering for the Ragazzi. Fortunately, I have an unforgettable friend, Marco Viazzo, big Milan fan as well that doesn't want to ever miss his sunday appointment with his idols and he doesn't really care about a few inches of snow. He is right as the highway is in excellent conditions and the warmth inside his powerful BMW makes one easily forget that the temperature outside is around 0C.

The stadium in Udine has a full house despite the atmospheric conditions. The Friulans (the people that live in the region of Udine) are huge football fans and the Rossoneri of the area have never let the Ragazzi alone, in all those years. The game starts bad. At th 11th minute, Selvaggi takes advantage of a disattention mistake of the Milan defence and beats Terreneo, the Milan keeper. Liehdolm has to cope with the absence of a lot of first team starters for various reasons and has to bring with him to Udine, 5 players from the Primavera: Turrini, De Solda, Cimmino, Giunta and Maldini. At half-time, the coach comes to Paolo and orders him:" Kid, get ready!". He doesn't realize what is about to happen. Almost mechanically, he starts warming up by running and doing the stretching excercises one does before entering onto the field. Then, when Liedholm asks him: "Do you prefer play on the right or left back position?" Paolo slowly realizes that his big moment has arrived. He enters replacing Battistini and plays on the right of the Milan defence, his role with the Primavera.

In the second half, Milan dominates Udines, and thanks to an intuition from Mark Hateley that anticipates the Udinese defence, manages to tie the game at 1-1. Maldini palys a very solid game, without any mistakes despite the pain at his feet. From this day on, he is the youngest player to ever start for Milan in Serie A and second youngest ever to start in Serie A. Only Gianni Rivera had started earlier than him, at the age of 15 for Alessandria, on June 2nd 1959 during an Alessandria-Inter. The impression of Liedholm is positive. "Despite his young age, he has an already obvious and superior tactical intelligence. He has in front of him a fabulous future. He can equal his dad, and maybe, even surpass his achievements." " He is a complete player" says his dad Cesare. "Both his two feet are excellent, is good at short passing, which is crucial for a defender". The headlines and praises, are all for him, the following week. "It has been amazing receiving all those phone calls of my friends from school congratulating me," his very first comments.

Paolo at that time, frequented the third scientific high-school, "Volta" of Milano, but on that Monday 21, January 1985, he had prefered not going to school, as he had a big test in one of his classes. He didn't want to get a bad grade which would have lowered his academic curriculum, since he had missed the classes on that topic because of his commitments with first the Primavera team and then, the First team. "At the beginning, my name was weighting too much, but I got used to it. I hope to have shown to be worth something. If Liedholm ever needs me, I am ready. Even, very ready!". Not only Liedholm will have needed him, but the Milan of the next 20 years. Very soon, in about a few weeks, he will celebrate the historic milestone of 500 games with the Milan jersey. It all began that week, that rocked Milano and Milan!

Here are the line ups of that Udinese-Milan of Paolino's debut:

Udinese-Milan 1-1

Stadio Friuli, Sunday 20 January 1985.

Udinese: Brini, Galparoli, Cattaneo, Gerolin, Edinho, Tesser, Mauro (Papais dal 74'), Miano, Selvaggi, Criscimanni, Carnevale.

Coach: Vinicio.

Milan:Terrerneo, Baresi, F.Galli, Russo, Di Bartolomei, Evani, Verza, Battistini (P,Maldini dal 46'), Hateley, Incocciati, Manzo.

Coach: Liedholm.

Goal-scorers: Selvaggi all'11', Hateley al 63'.

Referee: Pezzella di Frattamaggiore.

I'm just putting that great article on the history of the Milano Derby here as well so it can remain where it belongs, in this thread. Cheers.

The History Of The Milan Derby

This is an extraordinary article on the history of the greatest derby on earth. It comes from the February 2003 issue of the British monthly great football mag, Four Four Two. It's a very neutral and unbiased article/dossier which is a wealth of information for both Milanisti and Interisti. Enjoy!

FORZA MAGICO MILAN!!

The History of the Milano Derby, by Kevin Buckley.

On a damp Saturday night, 80,000 expectant fans flock to the leafy well-heeled western outskirts of Milan, Italy’s football and fashion capital. From the outside, the three-tiered San Siro stadium resembles a giant Hallowe’en pumpkin, shafts of white light beaming out through the slits of the six huge spiraling walkways around its perimeter.

Once inside, each end suddenly explodes 10 minutes before kick off into huge, perfectly choreographed displays of banners, slogans and colour-coded placards. The whole vibrant spectacle is down to the dedicated work of hundreds of members of the much-maligned ultras, the organised supporters groups only some of whose members engage into violence. But tonight they compete in an artistic battle orchestrated with a synchronisation worthy of La Scala, the city’s other famous theatre a few kilometers away to the east in Milan’s cobblestoned city centre.

The second tier of the curva sud - south bank – of the “home” side disappears under a red-and-black sea of placards. In a seamless scene-change, an enormous banner unrolls above the crowd, 40 meters by 30, depicting a cartoon scene of Milan stars with the slogan, La Storia Infinita – the never-ending story. The 7,300 “visiting” Inter contingent respond by making the curva nord shimmer with hundreds of shiny blue-and-black placards, dotted with the famous bright yellow stars, sported only by teams who have won at least 10 titles.

Then they too unfurl above their heads a huge banner featuring Giuseppe “Peppino” Prisco, one of the club’s most popular directors, who died last season. Much love for his mischievous media comments, the elderly lawyer is shown with his trademark wicked grin and making a vulgar hand gesture. His message “to the worms in hell” is not lost on Milan’s diavoli rossi, the red devils. From the Milan end, the fireworks shoot into the night sky from the front of second tier. The whole show is carried off with style and humour, provoking gasps and applause from the around the packed stadium, and will lead the evening TV sports bulletins.

Tonight’s derby – in Italy the English term is used – has an importance beyond his usual city confines. For the first time in a decade, Milan’s two teams are simultaneously tilting for the Serie A title. Just one week before they had found themselves sharing the very top spot in the table, an event not seen for an astonishing 30 years. The line-ups feature a string of top Italians – Christian Vieri of Inter and his best friend Filippo “Pippo” Inzaghi of Milan, Gigi di Biaggio, Francesco Toldo, Paolo Maldini and his defensive sidekick of 15 years, Alessandro “Billy” Costacurta – but on the night this 253rd Milanese derby is won for Milan by a 12th minute display of Brazilian football geometry.

The gangly Rivaldo threads a flat diagonal pass from the centre circle towards wide player Serginho on the left edge of Inter box. Inter’s Argentinian defender Nelson Vivas, standing in for countryman Javier Zanetti after the latter’s midweek international duties, desperately stretches but can’t cut out the inch-perfect ball. With one deft touch the spidery Serginho takes the ball sharply square inside, wrong-footing keeper Francesco Toldo who is shaping to anticipate a burst towards the byline down the left. The move ends with a hard grass-cutting shot into the gaping Inter net, and the San Siro erupts with an ear-ringing roar. It is AC Milan’s 97th derby win, now 10 more than Inter. Gate receipts are around 1.4 million Euros. The worldwide TV audience runs into tens of millions. It wasn’t always thus.

In the very last days of the final year of the 19th century, a small group of enthusiasts met one evening to establish the Milan Cricket and Football Club. Most football historians quote the date as December 16 1899, but in reality, the original document of the club ‘s founding statute was lost, so the gathering could have been any time between the ninth and the 17th of the month. There is also doubt over its location. Some accounts refer to the Hotel du Nord in Piazza Repubblica, others locate it at the nearby Bar Fiaschetteria in Via Berchet, which certainly became the regular meeting place. No exact figures exist for the number in attendance.

But what is not in doubt is the club’s English roots. Half a dozen English names featured in the association’s original membership and the driving force behind that inaugural meeting of what would later become the mighty Associazone Calcio Milan – AC Milan – was an English textile worker, one Herbert Kilpin.

A keen striker, Kilpin, - the 29 years old son of a Nottingham butcher – was the team’s first captain, its first club president being one Alfred Edwards. So it was that the final letter “o” was dropped from Milano to adopt the English spelling. The club’s original pitch was on the site of what is now Stazione Centrale, Milan’s main railway station, a huge marble masterpiece of Italy’s Fascist era of public works in the 20’s and 1930’s.

But the history of the Milan derby is the history of a sporting divorce. The two parties separated over a point of principle without ever coming to blows, then ended up sharing the same home without ever quite kissing and making up. They are football’s odd couple.

The separation came just a little over eight years after that original gathering. A splinter group led by artist Giorgio Muggiani, broke away because it wanted to permit foreigners to play for the side, contrary to Federation regulations. On March 08th 1908, a group of likeminded rebels gathered together at the L’Orlogio restaurant in Via Orefici just a goalkeeper’s kick away from the city’s famous landmark, the giant Duomo cathedral. And thus was born Internazionale Milano, the new name proudly reflecting the reasons for the divorce. “The colours they chose for their new kits reflected these early romantic leanings,” says Fabio Monti, Inter’s expert at the Milan-based Il Corriere della Sera, Italy’s leading daily newspaper. “The black was to represent the night, blue for the sky.” It was an idealistic gesture towards the nascent internationalism of the turbulent European politics of the early 20th century. Ironically, after winning their first scudetto – (literally, “little shield”) – in 1910, Inter’s first captain Virgilio Fossati was himself to fall victim of the nationalistic carnage of World War I. Meanwhile, the design of the club crest produced by those artistic founders is today ridiculed by Interisti as illegible.

Italian football fans are notoriously superstitious. And the birth of Inter produced what must be one of the most eerie ghosts at any football feast. Barbara Ballardini, 29, who compiled an entire academic thesis on the fans of Inter and Milan, explains: “Historically, AC Milan have experienced a lot of ups and downs, with long periods without winning anything. Before the schism that created Inter, they had already won three Scudetti with the latest coming the year before the breakaway. But then, they entered their longest ever barren period. AC Milan had to wait another 44 years before they won their next Scudetto. And that inaugural Inter meeting was attended by 44 founding members.” Woo spooky.

For many years, the Internazionale splitters were dismissed as a bunch of upper-class intellectuals, while AC Milan remained associated more with the working classes. Indeed, Milanese dialect gave early nicknames of Cascivit for Milan and Bauscia for Inter – roughly translated as “spanners” and braggers”. But these original socio-economic differences are now well outdated. A recent survey also found little difference between the fans’ political affiliations, with the traditionally left-leaning Milan fans shifting toward the centre sine the arrival in 1986 of club president Silvio Berlusconi, the media billionaire and current Prime Minister of Italy’s centre right governing coalition. Like the rest of Italy, club nicknames derive from team colours, hence Nerazzuri (black-blues) for Inter, and Rossoneri for Milan’s red-and-black.

The first meeting of the two Milan formations was, perhaps uniquely in the history of footballing derbies, not actually staged in the home city – nor even in the country. The two sides came head to head on a football pitch for the first time in Chiasso, some 50 miles north of Milan, just over the border of Switzerland. “Nobody really knows why,” admits Fabio Monti. And if the affable Monti doesn’t know, you suspect nobody does.

The result of the match, reported at the time as a “Chiasso Cup” tie was a 2-1 victory for the Milan Football and Cricket Club. Goalscorer Lana, Milan’s number seven, went on to score the Italian national side’s first ever goal two years later.

The renegade Inter’s early history was peripatetic, shifting from one location to another until 1930 when they settled at the roofless Arena stadium just outside the city’s inner ring of ancient gates which date back before Napoleon. Evocative of an ancient Roman amphitheatre, the Arena still hosts Serie D games.

Meanwhile Milan, with the big money backing of the Pirelli tyre manufacturing family – nowadays one of Inter’s main sponsors – built a stadium on the then city periphery, in the San Siro area, in 1926. They sold it to the city authorities in 1935. And enlarged version was inaugurated in 1939 with a 2-2 draw against England in a friendly international, just four months before the outbreak of World War II. In Italy, not even global conflagrations tend to stop football matches, and the following year, Inter obtained permission to shift their title-winning end-of season fixture against Bologna to the larger San Siro to accommodate the crowds.

The odd couple were back living under the same roof. Or at least Inter had cheekily brought its toothbrush to stay the night. The domestic arrangement was to be made permanent from 1947.

“Yes, it’s a peculiar history,” admits Barbara Ballardini, the thesis-writing Rossonera. “Two huge teams with huge fan bases that share the same ground don’t really have any strong ties to any particular part of the city. They are devoid of religious or political rivalries, save for the 70’s when some ultras groupings reflected the violent political environment in Italy at the time.”

But one of the most curious features of Milanese football culture is that nobody can explain why they chose one team or the other. “As a little girl, I just always liked wearing red. I’d dress up as a Milanista at carnival,” laughs Barbara Ballardini. It’s about as good a response you can get. When asked by a sociological survey whey they chose Inter, one third quoted family allegiance. Yet an astonishing18 percent said they couldn’t remember. Thirty-five year-old financial advisor Andrea di Cola is an Inter season-ticket holder: “When I was a kid they were a legendary club. Now, even tough we haven’t won anything for years, I like the fans. They are notoriously critical, yes, but there is a lot of self-irony in it all. It’s good fun.”

The derby’s passion on the pitch comes without the surrounding air of menace sometimes associated with such confrontations. “There certainly isn’t the aggression that you get back home,” says Linda McCanna, a 30-year-old Manchester United fan from Cheshire, now living in Italy with Massimo, her AC Milan season-ticket-holding boyfriend. “If a City fan – or a Liverpool fan, for that matter – wandered into a United pub, they’d be likely to find a bit of bother, especially on a matchday. Here, they sing songs against each other at the match, but then afterwards they’re in the bar sharing a drink. They know each other, work in the same places, live in the same areas.”

Perhaps, surprisingly, the absence of violence also derives from the network of ultras. “There did used to be trouble between the opposing ultras,” Barbara Ballardini explains. “But back in 1983, when a particularly nasty derby confrontation outside the San Siro got out of hand – an Inter fan died – the ultra leaders got together and agreed a kind of non-belligerence pact between themselves.” It has held to this day.

“I’d say, if anything, Milan fans dislike Inter more than they dislike us,” admits Max, a Rossonero, season-ticket-holder. “We have to share “our” stadium with them, and we’ve won more than they have. The Milan curva sud sings songs against Inter at every game, not only when we are playing against them.” The chant “July and August” ridicules Interisti pre-season boasting which often comes to nothing by season’s end. Given Inter’s lack of a Scudetto since 1989, it hits home. “But they seem more bothered about beating Juve,” says Max. “At least that’s what they pretend.”

“It is true. For Inter the derby is a very important game. But historically, it’s against Juventus that feelings ran highest, “says no less an authority than Mario Corso, legendary left-winger of the “Grande Inter” side that swept all before them in the early 60’s. Under coach Helenio Herrera, regarded as the inventor of the notorious catenaccio defensive style, Inter won four Scudetti, two European Cups and two Intercontinental Cups.

Corso, who notched up 414 league appearances for Inter, recalls: “In 65, we won 2-0 and overtook Milan to win the league. And I scored. That is a special memory. But against Juve, there was an angry feeling, it always felt worse being beaten by Juve. It was almost a derby.” Indeed, the Juventus-Internazionale fixture is classically known as il derby d’Italia, being the only ever-present Serie A fixture and because of the Inter and Juventus supporters spread around the country. But across town, at Milan club headquarters in Via Turati, Cesare Maldini, whose captaincy included lifting the European Cup at Wembley after defeating Benfica 2-1 in 1963, dismiss any suggestion that Milan’s city is anything less than a charged-up affair. “No, no, the players really felt it, recalls the ex-Rossonero leader, and father of current captain Paolo.

“The derby was always the most important game – it meant being supreme, for the fans to say they were the top team in the city, for a few months. When Milan won 6-0 a couple of years ago, and at “their place” too, he chuckles, “it was a terrific shock. It really meant something.” From his own playing days, he can’t pick out one particular derby game, “but in those days the winning fans would go out celebrating in the streets, and carry mock funeral wreaths to the other club. Admittedly, you don’t see that any more.”

The lack of animosity between the clubs increasingly extends to the transfer of players. Last season saw Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf, Croatian defender, Dario Simic and much talked about trequartista (playmaker), Andrea Pirlo the year before along with midfielder Christian Brocchi. “I could have never changed from nerazzuro to Milan, no never,” affirms the 61 year-old Corso. “I had the opportunity,” reveals Maldini senior, “back before Paolo was born. Moratti (Angelo, the father of current Inter president, Massimo) wanted me but it didn’t come off. In those days, it was almost unthinkable to change colours. The players had certain bars and places we went to. Really, it was an unthinkable.” But Alberto Costa, Milan correspondent at the Corriere della Sera, insists switching shirts is not a modern phenomenon.

“There are precedents. When Mila were relegated to Serie B in 1982 they were in a very bad way financially. Inter helped them out by lending three players, Aldo Serena, Canuti, and Pasinato. They came straight backup into Serie A.” A modern echo of that camaraderie came last November. Inter’s Christian Vieri sent a congratulatory text message to Andriy Shevchenko when the back-from injury Milan striker scored the vital Champions League winner against Real Madrid. A week later, the gesture was reciprocated when “Bobo” Vieri himself ended a goal drought by blasting all four against Brescia.

The Corriere della Sera man sums up the relations between the Milan giants: “On the pitch, between the players, there is a great rivalry. But it’s very, let’s say, very “English”: it’s hard competition between professionals, it means a lot, but it’s all done with fair play.” He makes a telling point: “When they changed the name of the San Siro it wasn’t by accident that they renamed it Guiseppe Meazza stadium.” Meazza was an Inter hero whose career spanned 20 years until 1947, scoring 283 goals in 408 matches. “But he actually played the last two seasons of his career with the Rossoneri,” says Costa. “He represents both clubs.” The new San Siro museum has memorabilia and trophies of both teams exhibited together.

The derby may well serve to emphasise the original closeness of the Milanese clubs, but it also points up the peculiar differences in club “culture”. The old declination of working class reds and aristocratic blues may be long gone. But Inter still hang to that old patina of prestige, the first of the two to win the yellow star. Nowadays, however, without a title win since 1989, it is an illustrious history that weights ever heavier. “Two different realities”, is how the two institutions are summed up by Federica Zangalli, whose role as a football reporter for TeleLombardia, the leading regional TV station, gives her a unique insight. “As a club, Inter are still very much run like a family firm, dominated by Massimo Moratti. He is a fan, he the loves the club. There is no “wall” dividing the owner from the management who run the club, the team. If he sees a player he likes, he buys him.” This is why only Inter could have tolerated for so long the Ronaldo saga. Juventus, for example, would have cut their losses and offloaded the troublesome star much sooner, as they did with Zidane. “Moratti is a lovely man, a romantic, which football needs. But perhaps he is too nice a person for this modern business of football.”

The arrival of Berlusconi in 1986 revolutionised Milan. They are now run like a multi-national company. Unlike Inter, everyone knows their specific role and little things don’t blow up into great big problems.” The enormous Berlusconi-era successes- six Serie A titles, three European Cups, three European Super Cups and two Intercontinental Cups – reversed the imbalance in silverware with their neighbours.

“Whereas at Milan there’s an upbeat approach, at Inter, there is this culture of suffering,” observes Zangalli. “It is almost as though it’s in their DNA to suffer. The more they miss out on winning something, the more anxious they become, the fans, the club, so the more pressure there is to win something. It’s a classic vicious circle.”

But former player Corso denies Inter’s is a culture of pessimism. “There is a lot of irony, very self-deprecating. It’s always been like that.” It is perhaps no coincidence that many comics and literary figures are numbered amongst Inter’s celebrity fans. Away from the ultra-dominated curva, Inter supporters in the costlier seats are notoriously the most impatient in Serie A. “Yes, it’s true, they are very negative,” says Fabio Monti, Il Corriere’s Inter-watcher. If at half-time, they are not winning, they start to whistle against their own players every time they make a mistake.” Zangalli agrees: “That, of course, makes the players nervous still. Several players have moved from Inter to Milan in recent seasons, and they all notice the difference arriving at AC.” Is it just that success breeds success so the Milanisti are more relaxed and patient? “No, Inter fans have always been like that,” bemoans Monti. “Even before the barren period, they were always more negative, more critical of their side. Perhaps it comes from having such great expectations because of their history, it’s difficult to say,” he admits with an exasperated shake of the head.

Milan and Inter, the odd couple indeed. If AC are now the laid-back slightly devilish Walter Matthau, then Inter are the neurotic Jack Lemmon, trying too hard and beset by self-doubt. Simplistically speaking, AC Milan’s game classically is founded on a patient passing approach, dubbed by detractors as gioco orrizontale, - the square ball. Inter’s is traditionally built around one outstanding world-beater – Sandro Mazzola in the 1960’s, Ronaldo in the late 90’sm Vieri now – exploiting the gioco verticale, the direct long ball. Peppino Prisco, the rascally former Inter vice-president, once defended the team’s style by referring to the famous 1949 derby victory: “square ball five, long ball six.”

Milan sold over 53,000 season tickets for this current season. Inter, despite not having lifted that championship shield since 1989, and despite having inexplicably thrown it away by losing to Lazio on the very last day of last season, sold only a shade fewer. The odd couple look destined to share domestic life for some time yet.

KONDR · 2 марта 2005

Here comes some more! From the February issue of Forza Milan!, the narration of one of the greatest gamse in the Milan history, a famous Juventus-Milan which ended 7-1 for Milan in Torino, related by the legendary Carlo Pellegatti and translated from Italian to English by yours truly, aka me. Enjoy!

FORZA CARLO!!!

FORZA MAGICO MILAN!!!

The year 1950 grants Milan with an historic win, in Turin, led by the Swedish Trio Gre-No-Li, the great protagonists. The victim is Juventus, thumped 7-1, at home, and above all their midfielder, Parola, sent off after kicking Nordhal. An ugly episode of the game, that however, would not compromise their friendship.

By Carlo Pellegatti.

An historic and unforgettable date, this far, very far day of 05 February 1950. The Milan of the Legendary Swedish Trio of Gre-No-Li beats Juventus 7-1 at the Stadio Comunale (Torino), thanks to a hat-trick from Nordhal and goals from Liedholm, Gren, Burini and Candiani. It's also in that day was born the Great Milan of the Swedish, that during the following season, would win, the fourth Scudetto of the History of the club, after a 44 years wait since the last title. Before starting relating that unforgettable game, let us spend some time understanding who were Gunnar Nordhal, Gunnar Gren and Nils Liedholm, the fantastic Swedish Trio, that the President Umberto Trabattoni wanted at all cost in his project for Milan, a project that would make the team win the Scudetto within a short period, the Scudetto, that the Rossoneri would win the following season.

The first to join Milan is Gunnar Nordhal, in 1949, a centre forward of a rare physical strength, devastating, who had just won, the year before, the London Olimpic games, with his National Team. And it is also Nordhal, that after the insistence of the Milan president, convinced his two other compatriots, Liedholm and Gren, to sign for the club. It is around these three, that team manager, Toni Busini, is trying to build a competitive team, whose bench was allocated to Lajos Czeizler and with a great champion in the net such as Lorenzo Buffon.

Gunnar Nordhal is among the strongest centre forwards ever seen in Italy. Legend has it that once, an opponent held his jersey in an desperate attempt to stop him, but he was simply pulled by Nordhal for over a good ten metres before finally scoring a goal. So powerful physically, yet such a fair play player. As a matter of fact, he was sent off only once, in Palermo, in 1952. His opponent Garioli, bruttalized him throughout the game until, at one time, the Swedish forward yelled at him to stop. The ref, being nearby, warned Nordhal to be careful with what he's saying, and the Milan forward asks the ref:"But can't you see that he's been continuously bruttalizing me throughout the game?". The answer of the ref, was a very harsh red card to the Swede, which caused the furious reaction of Gunnar Gren who broke everything in his path in the dressing room: lamps, doors, etc.. To this day, the Swedish forward still holds the record of goals for Milan in Serie A: 210 goals, an incredible amount scored in only 257 games, which will probably never be equaled.

If Nordhal is the strength, the power, Gunnar Gren is the class. When he arrived in Italy, he was already a mature player, at 29 years old. He was nicknamed "il Professore" (the Professor) as he was literally teaching football to his teammates, who were simply mesmerized by his stylistish prowesses. He was the only one able to juggle with the ball with the ball touching the ground, with both his head and feet three lapses around the San Siro. He could use with the same efficiency and ease either his right or left foot: a genius technically, but always at the service and disposal of the team.

Nils Liedholm is the youngest of the three. Tall and strong, typical of athletes from the North, he can invent a play at any given moment. He still holds an amazing record: he has never been yellow-carded. In those years, Milan will acquire their main characteristic: style and elegance, traits that will distinguish them for ever from then on.

Let us get back to that winter day of 1950. The Rossoneri only have one great opponent in that season, Juventus. And the rivalry was even more intense for the Gre-No-Li. Indeed, as the Scudetto was fought by two different schools of football, the Swedish one of Milan against the Danish of Turin, the great Hansen and Praest. Milan has been lately in great form: in the past 12 games that followed that astonishing 6-5 defeat to Inter, Czeizler's men went on to hot streak where they won 10 games, losing only once, in Roma against Roma and tieing 0-0 against Triestina, who were coached by a certain Nereo Rocco. The Milan attack has been in an extraordinary form: they scored 39 goal, bombarding the opposing defences with goals from everywhere. Among them, a 4-1 win against Fiorentina, a 5-0 against Genoa, an astonishing 9-1, at the San Siro against Bari, another 5 against Sampdoria, 4 to Como and 2 to the "lucky" Venezia.

It's the 4th day of the return games in the league. Juventus, strong with the presence of keeper Viola and of Piccinini (the father of the famous tv commentator of the tv show, "Controcampo"), Muccinelli, Parola and Boniperti, have a 3 pts lead over Milan in the Serie A standings. After a few minutes, the Torinesi take the lead thanks the Dane John Hansen, but within 26 minutes, reverses the situation and the first half ends with a 4-1 score for the Rossoneri, thanks to goals from Nordhal, Gren, Liedholm and Nordhal again. In the second half, Nordhal, Burini and Candiani seal the triumph with an emphatic and commanding 7-1 score, in Turin.

Let us allow Gunnar Nordhal, whom, in his autobiography "Oro e Campi Verdi" (literally Gold and Green Fields), has commented on that game. "This was the chef d'oeuvre, of the Gre-No-Li. The field was all wet due to the constant raining, our preferred type of field, and Juve were literally destroyed by our attacks. Everyone of us surpassed and transcended our performance in that game in which we came close to perfection in the play. It would be well worth the effort to do a cinematographic remake of that game in its entirety, a game which was a true benchmark of class, and the consecration of Gren's out of this world technical abilities and the sizzling accelerations of Liedholm.

In his memoires, Nordhal also remembers, another episode of that game. When the Juve defender, Parola, who was marking him during the game, loses his cool and literally kicks the Milan forward, causing the Juve player for an early shower. "He couldn't it - wrote Nordhal - because I know him and his character, which was a good and loyal guy, and I knew that this was mainly due to the pressure of the game. In the dressing rooms, we shook hands and to this day, we see each other with pleasure."

The reason of that great friendship is known to few people. It was in fact, Carlo Parola, that Gunnar had known during a friendly match with the Rest of the World in Glasgow, to ask him, for the first time:" Why don't you come to Italy"? The two met again, a few months later, where the team of Nordhal, Norkoeping, played on a cold Turin afternoon, Juventus. "The fable of my long Italian journey - recalls the Swede - really started after that phrase, that Parola said to me, in a snowy afternoon, in Turin".

Juventus - Milan 1-7

Turin, Sunday 05 February 1950.

Juventus: Viola, Bertucelli, Manente, Mari, Piccinini, Muccinelli, Martino, Boniperti, J. Hansen, Praest.

Coach: Carver.

Milan: Buffon, Belloni, Foglia, Annovazzi, Tognon, Bonomi, Burini, Gren, Nordhal, Liedholm, Candiani II.

Coach: Czeizler.

Goal scorers: J. Hansen 2' (Juve); Nordhal 15th, 26th, 49th; Gren 23rd, Liedholm 24th; Burini 70th; Candiani II 84th.

Referee: Galeati.

A great article on San Paolo on the March issue of Forza Milan!. This article is where Paolo talks about the games in Serie A that has impacted him the most. Enjoy is all I can say as it is very very informative!

FORZA SAN PAOLO!!!

Paolo Maldini

The ten games in Serie A that have left the most intense memories and feelings: from the debut in Udine to the UEFA play-off match against Sampdoria; from the triumph in Napoli to the Derby of the 6-0. But also some of the worst games. 10 games plus his debut. 11 in total. 11 games in Serie A that will remain for ever in San Paolo's mind.

By Luca Seraffini.

We have simply lost count of his celebrations, of the records that have been falling one after the other, but Paolo Maldini is always looking ahead. If one asks him to look back in the past, he always does it with great attention and respect towards the past, recalling annecdotes and lessons learnt at that time that could still be useful today and in the future, for him and for others. Very soon, it will be 500 games in the league, his physic is still integre, his will intact, the rossonero jersey again shinning like the first one in 1986. Chosing the 10 games, maybe not the most beautiful but the most significative is not easy: here we are talking about different eras: the first part with Liedholm at his debut and then the succession of Capello, then Sacchi and then, again Capello without forgetting Tabarez and the two difficult come-backs, the sweet feeling of being coached by papa Cesare until the new day, with the reassuring face of Carlo Ancelotti. But let us the captain do the talking.

23 May, 1987: Milan-Sampdoria 1-0 played on neutral grounds at the Stadio Communale of Torino.

"A game that will be remembered for two important reasons. The first one is that after a few years on the down side, finally Milan managed to win a decisive match and in the same occasion, reaching an imprtant target. European qualification was fondamental for the new era under Berlusconi, who had been in place for a little bit more than a year. We prepared for this game in an extraordinary way, it was a tough and balanced match. The second reason that made this game very important was that Fabio Capello, at that time coach of the first team after having been in charge of the Primavera team (youth team), convinced everyone that he could very well coach at this level. After that season and for the following 4 years, he went to be a manager for Mediolanum and then, became the successor of Sacchi and I have always believed that this win against Sampdoria was the starting point for him.

25 October 1987: Verona-Milan 0-1

We had adhered to the Sacchi project with great enthusiasm. I will never forget that he had called me in June, during my holidays making me stop my cruise on my boat and holding me on the phone in the hall of the hotel for more than an hour in my bathing suit. He was a maniac but he taught us many things that we have never forgotten. He was on the verge of being fired; we were playing well but the results were not coming and we had suffered an unexpected elimination from the UEFA Cup that we had qualified for with much trouble and difficulty. The winning goal scored by Virdis was a kind of liberation, which allowed us to play in a liberated way and thus saving Sacchi from a possible firing. Had this happened, we may have probably never seen the stellar squad of the following 4 years. This day was also the day when my friend Billy Costacurta made his debut in Serie A and this also a nice memory.

1 May 1988: Napoli-Milan 2-3

How much meaning and weight can I give to this photo on my album? Infinitely. It was the crowning of an interminable race, a run perhaps never seen in the whole history of the Serie A eventough there has been lots of other cases where a team has won the scudetto at the last minute. We won in a stadium in disbelief, where all the spectators were given us a standing ovation at the end of the match. We had beaten the defending champions of Italy with the great Diego Maradona, the opponent that I have admired the most in my career. During those 90 minutes, there was the sum of everything and all the qualities that would allow us later on to win it all: 1 Scudetto, 2 Champions Cups, 2 Intercontinental Cups, Italian and European Super Cups. We would have probably not obtained a good result that day in any other way than through an offensive and spectacular style and not with defensive or speculative methods.

22 April 1990: Verona-Milan 2-1

I am not talking of a conspiracy or anything else, but certainly that match is one of the biggest injustices I have faced in my career. It was the year where the title was won in the last day by Napoli in front of us. We were denied an absolutely obvious penalty, but to be honest, we lost our cool and our heads: we were very tired and nervous that day, we had Van Basten, Rijkaard, Costacurta and Sacchi sent off. We lost a title that we should have probably won. To compensate the loss of the Scudetto, a few weeks later, we won a splendid Champions Cup. The responsability of that incredible loss was probably ours in big part, but Rosario Lo Bello (the ref of that Verona-Milan) has had his fair share in it which were not negligeable.

His debut: an unforgettable memory. Ten games plus one: in Paolo Maldini's gallery, it simply couldn't be without his debut in the league, which occured in the beginning of 1985, away from Milano covered by snow. But let us San Paolo tell us how it went:

20 January 1985: Udinese-Milan 1-1

Impossible forgetting that match. So many memories are tied with with Liedholm on this match! A truly Great, with his exceptional sense of humour he was able to put everyone at ease and able to make every one see the bright side of any situation. For exemple, that afternoon, at Udine, I was very stressed. Half an hour before the kick-off, in the dressing room, he came to see me and asked me:"Where do you want to play?". Yes you heard it!The Maestro was asking the debuting 16 year old kid where he preferred to play! Speaking about that today makes me laugh. However that day, fear and stress dominated my sense of humour. Nonetheless that question by Il Barone gave me the vital serenity I needed during the match.

4 October 1992: Fiorentina-Milan 3-7

The Viola were just behind us in the standings prior to this match. Had we lost that game, they would surpassed us in the top of the Serie A table. I regret that after that loss, they were not able to get back their old level and as a result of that free-fall, they were relegated to Serie B at the end of the season at the surprise of everyone. Fiorentina took the lead early on with Baiano, a mistake from our defence but our answer was devastating. Also at the end of that match, we left the stadium with a standing ovation by the Viola faithful and this for a footballer is one of the most gratifying and incredible satisfaction. This is the match from the Capello times that comes to mind right away, along with an 8-2 in Foggia at the very last day of the season. This 3-7 propulsated us towards the second consecutive Scudetto and proved definitely wrong all those we were suggesting that Capello's Milan were more a cynical and efficient team and not spectacular.

1 December 1996:Piacenza-Milan 3-2

The Sacchi and Capello eras had just finished, we had a squad which was not used to losing. In the negative moments we were lacking a kind of stability. I am sad that after that match, our coach Oscar Tabarez was sacked. He was a good person, very serious and good coach. He had to pay for everyone as it is unfortunately the case in football for coaches, even for faults that were not his. In reality, he had positive ideas that with time could have pay off. Three days later, we had a Champions League match in which we only needed a tie to advance to the 1/4 finals. Sacchi was recalled and the team was a little bit lost. We lost at home against Rosenborg. At the end of the match, we faced a heavy contestation from the fans and at the end of the season, the return of Sacchi turned out not to be a good solution. Thus, after Liedholm in 1987, almost 10 years later, we faced another sacking of the coach.

6 April 1997: Milan-Juventus 1-6

A tragic night, the lowest point ever in my career in Serie A. I don't believe there's any need to add a lot here. The memory of the game is enough and it has to be used to make sure to avoid at all costs to repeat in the future, a defeat such dimension.

[/u]11 April 1999: Milan-Parma 2-1[/u]

No, no, it's not because of my goal. But to be honest, a goal like that, in my career I had never scored one: a bullet shot from long range right into the top left corner. The importance of the game was very big: it was the first of the 7 consecutive wins that allowed us to win the Scudetto. Everyone was saying that it was all done, that the Scudetto would have been won by Lazio. During that Parma-Milan game, we were trailing them but Ganz completed the come-back. Maurizio scored that season some highly decisive goals, in particular in Piacenza and at home against Sampdoria. They were also saying that this Milan was not playing in a spectacular way whereas the forwards, Bierhoff, Weah, Leonardo and Ganz had scored between themselves almost 50 goals.

23 May 1999: Perugia-Milan 1-2

How many times have I heard that the Old Guard is finished, done, past it and that a rebuilding process was needed? Because of that, Seba Rossi, Demetrio, Billy, Boban and I felt, let us say, this Scudetto to be more, "ours". The last Scudetto was the most difficult of all, the least expected eventough Zaccheroni has had the merits to believe in it since the first day of summer training camp. After having browsed rapidly through the newspapers that first day, in the evening, he came in our rooms with the newspapers and told us all: "look, there is no one that put us among the favorites." The finale run was amazing: we won on the road in Torino, Vicenza, Udine and Perugia. I'm dissappointed that amng some of our opponents that we had beaten that year they did not have fair play comments. However, the celebrations were unforgettable. We deserved the win and that match (against Perugia) was a battle of nerves.

11 May 2001: Inter-Milan 0-6

A match that has entered into the legend: the biggest home loss in the history of the Nerazzuri, as a matter of fact, against us! After the 4th goal, San Siro was starting to empty and only our tifosi were remaining that deserved a nice satisfaction after period of disappointments and delusions that had led to Zaccheroni's sacking. Yes, my father was the coach and the fact that he had his name linked with this game, for me it has been an uncomparable joy in my career. We simply destroyed them with our grinta, will, determination, desire to win, with our game and speed. If the match had lasted 4 hours, we would have continued to score, but not to hurt them: they say that hurting is not fair play. I answer to that, that we players and tifosi, we had lots of fun, in fact, we had a blast.

Milan, and the Champions Cup, a Great Story and Tradition.

The month of May has been synonymous of celebrations for all, but importantly for Milan. Indeed, the month of May represent a month full of meaning with not only important dates of the past to remember but also and most importantly, an habit if not a duty to write even more glorious days in the present and the future. The Milan official site has been devoted the last couple of days to rememorate those days.

It started yesterday, May 22, 2003, with the 40th anniversary of the first Champions Cup won by Milan in Wembley against Benfica which article I have taken the time to translate to English as it is well worth the read for all the Milanisti. Today, May 23, it is celebrated as it is on a May 23 that Sacchi's Milan confirmed their superiority and imposed their stamp in football history as one of the greatest and most dominant club teams of all time, if not the greatest of all, yet again against Benfica in Vienna. Yesterday, in the official site, there was a big photo of the 1963 team in the first page. For those who have missed it, I am attaching it to this post.

In the next few days, these celebrations will continue to rememorate our glorious past with posts and pics about those who have contributed to make Milan what Milan are today. Now, it's the 2002-2003 Milan's turn to write another of such a glorious page, in the long and proud Milan History Book by matching the achievement of their legendary and triumphant predecesors.

FORZA MAGICO MILAN!!!

22 May 1963: The Heart Still Beats

Milano - Milan's heart still beats. Important impulses, regular pulsations of the heart. Fourty years since the first triumph of an Italian team in the Champions Cup, Milan is still yet again in the finale. Not only that: it's in England yet again, the land of the foundator of Milan, Herbert Kilpin, yet again, with a Maldini as captain. To guard Eusebio, there was Cesarone; today to face Del Piero, there will be Paolo. Not Paolino. This was the youngster of 1985, of his debut of career, of the first steps in Italy, Europe and around the world. Today, it's Super Paolo, the father of two beautiful children and of so many football memories.

Paolo after Cesare, Old Trafford after Wembley: a short cut possible of some of the most historical and unique as the Rossonera History. Speaking of Maldini, today, the fourtieeth anniversary of the Wembley triumph against mighty Benfica, here's Cesarone Maldini's comments:"We have been the first, even to this day, I have a very vivid memory of this finale. But the amazing thing is that fourty years later, is that there's still a Maldini captain. This thing, on top of the passion and enormous bond I feel and I have towards Milan, make me very confident about our chances in the finale in Manchester."

The current head of the scouts of Milan, brillant protagonist as a coach of the end of the 2001 season, continues to share some of his memories of what, eventough later became part of History as the Magical night of Wembley, was in fact an afternoon filled with glory. "We were not the favorites, however, in all the previous matches of the Champions Cup that year (1963), we had played well, we had a very technical team, a true team every sense. We played against an extremely strong who had just eliminated both Barcelona and Real Madrid, which were at the time, teams filled with true legends of football." At the end, Milan managed to beat Benfica, coming from behind and for Captain Maldini and his teammates, receiving the well-deserved bonus from the club: "14 Million Lire each?No, 14 Million in total. I don't want to be wrong, but I believe we received each a bonus of about 700-800 thousand Lire. I was able to buy a Fiat with the victory in this finale."

The coach of the first Milan Champions of Europe was the legendary and much beloved Paròn Rocco, for whom Cesare Maldini has always had a high esteem: "I will always remember him. Each time that there's a discussion about football of the past and that we talk about anecdotes of the past, he always appears on the discussions. In any moment. He will be present in our minds. Not only at Milan, but also in Trieste (his city of origin). Each year, they hold ceremonies and celebrations in his honour and memory. When he was our coach, nobody had ever spoken bad about him, nor in the dressing room, neither inside the club. This man was able, with his humour and typical traits, to live and be friends with all of us and with all the great persons at the top, such as the presidents of the club, from Rizzoli to Carraro."

Hello boys and girls. What Carlo Pellegatti fails to tell here is what happened that night in the hotel where Milan squad were staying. I mean the night after the first match, suspended for low visibility, and before the legendary repeat game. A few clients called reception complaining that a large animal is running upstairs making big noise. The bell man goes upstairs and carefully watches in the corridor. The scene he sees is hilarious:

Ruud Gullit is trying a few short runs in the hotel corridors. Two men: Arrigo Sacchi and Vincenzo Pincolini carefully watching him, dubious faces and scratching their head. After each run Pincolini checkes Gullit's muscle. That was the "big animal".

Then Ruud says: "I know a man who may help us".

In the morning a private jet takes off from Linate airport: it flies to Amsterdam, to pick up a man with a suitcase. He's Ted Troost, Ruud's personal phisioterapist. He lands in Belgrad, inspects Gullit's leg and says "Thirty minutes, he can only play thirty minutes". Sacchi says: "Ok that will be enough". Ruud sits on the bench. He can do nothing but his presence gives Milan more courage. When Donadoni gets injured Ruud comes on the pitch and he'll actually play the whole second half plus extra time. The price for this will be a long absence in the season. He can't run, but he stands at midfield, he hypnotizes the jugoslavians, he shoots the free kicks.

Another thing is what happened in Milan's changing room at halftime. Donadoni on the stretcher taken unconscious to hospital two minutes earlier. His heart had stopped beating for many seconds. The boys are shocked: a few of them are pale in their face, their legs trembling. Giovanni Galli keeps his temper and starts shouting and slapping many of them on the face. Maldini is first, anedoctically Baresi gets a few slaps as well.

Later, during shootout, another situation. Milan are ahead but they have to score the final penalty. cappellini, a youngsters has to go on the ball. It's the forth and decisive shot. His a penalty specialist and Sacchi has sent him in at last minute of extratime. but he's young and his face tells all his fear. Frank Rijkard looks at him and stops him with his hand while approaching the penalty box. "I go" he says. He's not a penalty specialist but he's a real man. He goes, and he scores the winning goal.

I was on television and nearly dying. Milan was already out of Scudetto, miles away from Inter. Without that win, the great cicle would have probably not happened. Sacchi would have probably been exonerated. But we won...

And some more:

"Not really an anecdote, but a glimpse of everyday life at Milanello. Not many know that there are major differences among different tables the players use at the restaurant in MIlanello.

There is a table where the coach sits with the old guard. Obviously sits are physically restricted, and only the old guard decides who can sit at that table. Being admitted is something that requires years, and stepping in that table means that a player becomes part of the old guard, a senator.

Arrigo Sacchi recalls that, when he was MIlan coach, he came to the table, and nobody dared to sit before the coach had arrived. When he got there, he looked at Baresi and Baresi gave a nod so everyone else could sit.

This is the spirit of Milan ! "

FORZA GIANNI!!!!

KONDR · 2 марта 2005

After a long period of no update, I'll be posting in the next few days, a few great stories in here. Starting with this one, which relates the first Scudetto of the modern era for Milan, in the 1950-51 season. It comes from Forza Milan of May 2003 and is written by the legendary and unique Carlo Pellegatti. I'm translating it to English. Enjoy!

FORZA PELLEGATTI!!!

FORZA MAGICO MILAN!!!!

SCUDETTO...FINALLY!!!!

"In 1951, Milan becomes Champions of Italy after a waiting of 44 years. Inside the dressing rooms, the emotions go from drama due to the unexpected home defeat to Lazio, to the euphory after the contemporany defeat of Inter, the only team able to pass the ragazzi in the standings. The big hero of this season is Gunnar Nordhal, author of 34 goals.

By Carlo Pellegatti.

Fourty five years without winning a Scudetto. An eternity! It was not easy to become and remain a Milan fan between 1907 and 1951, a time when glory had other colors. But the love of the Rossoneri of those years, love passed onto the next generation by aunts, uncles, grand parents and co, a love and dedication that paid off with tremendous trophies and titles, conquered in the second part of the last century that just finished. Successes and triumphs that took Milan to the top of the world.

It is indeed in order to honour that extraordinary event of a Milan, again first in the league, that on June 10, 2001, Adriano Galliani (accompagnied by an historic Milanista as Fedele Confalonieri) has wanted to meet and reward, with a gold medal, the heroes of this victory, half a century later. The first Scudetto of the modern era, the fourth of Milan's history. Liedholm, Zagatti, Buffon, Silvestri, Burini, De Grandi, Santagostino, Vicariotto with Davide Eleni, the Romaccioni of those years, were invited to re-live this event. They were all smiling, sereine and happy; however, fifty years ago, the atmosphere inside the dressing room was quite the opposite.

Let us go back in time and re-live the emotions of that unforgettable Milan, of this historic sunday. The Great Milan of President Umberto Trabattoni starts building the foundations of this success in the 1948-49 season, with the purchases of the Irish Sloan and the Islandish Gudmundsson. The sporting director Toni Busini is close to purchase also the Danish Ploeger, that Juve takes under the nose of Milan, in what almost caused as a provocation. In order to be forgiven for that "diplomatic incident", the Juve president, Agnelli, lets Milan freely get the centre forward of the Swedish National Team, Gunnar Nordhal (already optioned by the Bianconeri), debutting with Milan against Pro Patria on the 17th of January 1949. During the following season, the swede was joined by two great footballers of his country: Gunnar Gren aka "Il Professore" (The Professor) and Nils Liedholm, "Il Barone" (The Baron). The results are immediate, with a brillant second post in the league while scoring 118 goals.

The prerogative of a spectacular, devastating and prolific Milan was born at the beginning of the 1950-51 season. The Rossonero attack starts their new Serie A campaign with results like these: 6-2 against Udinese, 2-1 in Genoa against Sampdoria, 9-2 against Novara, 5-3 to Napoli. The Milan march seems unstoppable, but is put to an halt in the Derby of November 12th, 1950 where the Nerazzuri, led by Lennart Skoglund (another Swede) won 3-2. Despite this loss, the Rossoneri are still on top of the standings and their run continues until the triumphant epilogue on June 10th, 1951.

Second last day of the season, Milan is leading the table with 3 points over Inter, who plays that day in Torino, against the Granata while Milan faces Lazio at a full packed San Siro. The Milan fans are expecting that title for such a long time this moment. It could be the first Scudetto for a lot of the fans in the stands that afternoon. At that time, there were not the now famous "Tutto il calcio minuto per minuto" or there were no cellphones and the news from Torino came very scarcely and not that rapidly. The news coming from Torino were not very encouraging while the news from Milanello were dramatic. The first half, at the San Siro ends 2-1 in favor of the Biancocelesti, a result that would not change until the end of the game.

Let us know relive the last minutes of that afternoon with the words of Gunnar Nordhal, taken from his book "Oro e campi verdi" :

" We had to beat Lazio. It was this very obligation to win at all cost, almost played us a deadly trick to our nervous system. We played badly. We were very motivated, against a difficult and solid Lazio formation. We left the field, beaten 2-1 and depressed. I will always rememer - continues the Swede in his memoires - the deep sorow of Carletto Annovazzi, that as a born and raised Milanese, he had put everything he got into this Scudetto dream. Inside the dressing rooms, no one moved, no one had the courage to talk when Busini, the sporting director, entered yelling:" Inter lost in Torino!". At that moment, the atmosphere changed drastically: from players and coaches, staying silent in their seats, almost crying, everyone, in one single burst, yelled their joy and started embracing and hugging each other in a frenesy. Players embracing, managers, coaches crying of joy. The tifosi, who had heard the news via the loudspeakers of the San Siro stadium at the same time as the players in the dressing rooms of the incredible result of Torino, started asking loudly for the players to come back on the field. We were now sure of becoming Champions of Italy: the tifosi jumped above the fences of the stadium and joined us all on the pitch and celebrated with us, bearing us on their shoulders, crazy of happiness and joy."

The stats give an even greater meaning to the triumph of this fantastic Milan. Gunnard Nordhal, in the 37 games he played, scored 34 goals. He is the prince of the Milan attack, that would score that season, in total, 107 goals with only 39 against. After the Swede, the 2nd goal scorer for Milan is Annovazzi with 17 goals, then Liedholm with 13 and Burini with 12; 26 wins, 8 ties and 4 losses, for a Milan, that a few weeks later, would go onto to win, the Coppa Latina (ancestor of the Champions Cup) the first international trophy of its history. The beginning of the great Rossonero era started in that far away 10th of June 1951. A splendid history that is still moving, exciting, enthralling, infinite. The History of this Magico, Marvelous, Old Milan!"

Another one from the Forza Milan of July 2003 by the legendary Carlo Pellegatti. Enjoy!

FORZA PELLEGATTI!!!

Accade in Luglio: Battere la Juve è di...rigore. (It happened in July: Beating Juve is "di rigore"). (Italian play of words).

In Rome as in Manchester, thirty years ago: Milan faces the Bianconeri in the finale of the Italian Cup that the ragazzi win after the penalty session following a very hard fought game, venging the bitterness of Verona. Hero of the match, Villiam Vecchi, today, Dida's maestro.

By Carlo Pellegatti.

The opponent: Juventus. Reward: a Cup. The victory: at the penalyt kicks. The hero: the Milan keeper. It seems that one is writing about the latest, amazing, moving match in Manchester, however, the game in question was thirty years ago, on July 01 1973, when Milan won its third Coppa Italia. 1973, An unforgettable year, the year of Salonicco, of Verona, of Rome. Not only for the intense sensations that this team offered to the rossoneri fans, but also because this Milan was one of the most spectacular, classic, devastating of human memory. Rocco, believed to be a defensive coach, fielded a very offensive minded team strenghtened by the defensive experts such as Schnellinger, Rosato and Anquilletti but with a forward line that most times had simultaneously together, Bigon, Benetti, Prati, Rivera and Chiarugi. Five stars as talented as the ones of today's team for their class, their style, their pride and their will to win. And this Milan won and convinced, playing in both Serie A and Cup Winners' Cup, games of extraordinary beauty. No one can forget the 4-1 away against Sampdoria, or the magnificient goal of an ever inspired and simply magic Gianni Rivera in Vicenza, beaten 3-0.

It was not only a beautiful Milan, but also a concrete, solid, compact, never giving up team that used these qualities to perfection during the Cup Winners' Cup final, won with difficulty in Salonicco (Greece). Down 1-0 after only 6 minutes of play after Chiarugi's goal, the match turned into an assault from the English players of Leeds, towards the goal of Milan, forcing the heroic Milan defence into a perfect performance, with the keeper, Vecchi, the absolute hero of the game. Three days later, on May 20th, 1973, a fatal and unforgettable date for the Milan fans.

I still have in front of my eyes, the highway between Milano and Venezia of this sunday morning, with a long, very long Rossonero flag with a golden star, long of 140 kilometres, held on top of hundreds of cars and buses. The joy and enthusiasm of the Rossoneri fans, unaware of the sad and dramatic afternoon that they were about to experience, a striking contrast with the sadness, sorrowness in their faces, bathed by their tears at the end of the match. Indeed, Juventus won, at the 90th minute, a season dominated by the Rossoneri, that in Verona, for some still unknown reasons, collapsed in what is still to date, one of the great mysteries of modern football.

Only a few years later, we realized that this match, this day, represented a turning point for the Milan fans. Tthat day, a kind of generational passage occured. A lot of the fans, perhaps due to the great delusion felt that day, stopped following the Ragazzi in all the away games, friends of numerous travels, of so many long and tiring campaigns, of so many card games in the buses that left at 1 am the previous night to go to Roma or Napoli. But let us get back to these days. Milan loses the title of the Star (10th Scudetto) on May 20th, 1973, however, one week later, we cannot miss the beginning of the Coppa Italia campaign in Bergamo.After this game, the anger increased in the team and in all of us fans, as we all knew that Verona represented just an accident. A unique accident, black and incredible. Indeed because in Bergamo, the Ragazzi retrieved their real level, the one, just as an exemple among many others, against Bologna that they beat in front of 90,000 fans at the San Siro in a superb performance. Against Atalanta, Bigon and Chiarugi, secured the result early on as they scored inside the first 15 minutes and the team played a solid match. The team coached by Rocco was in the group B in the Coppa Italia along side Cagliari, Napoli and Atalanta while group A included Inter, Juventus, Reggiana and Bologna. The teams in each group would play each other twice, home and away in a mini-league type with the first team in each group would qualify for the final.

The following sunday, the team had a natural "day off" following a series of intensive and stressful games caused the team to lose at home against Cagliari, a loss that would not however, jeopardize Milan's chances in the Italian Cup that in the following 4 games, won all of them, Napoli home and away, Atalanta at the San Siro and Cagliari away. A secure path leading to a well deserved final but with a great dissapointment: in a splendid form, Gianni Rivera was suspended from the final thanks to Francescon of Padova for a foul, perhaps his first of the whole season.

In the other group, it was Juve who qualified giving the chance to a revenge of the robbery of Verona. Bettega opened scored right away for Bianconeri, but in the 5th minute of second half, Benetti, tied the game with a penalty. In the second half, the men of Cesto Vycpalek (Juve's coach), lead by Capello and Halle had a physical problem (calo) but the Rossoneri didn't manage to take advantage of it. The result didn't change not even in the overtime and thus, off we went to the penalty kicks. The 80,000 fans of the Olimpico of Roma, just like the players, were taken by the intense emotions of the game and exhausted the heat. Shnellinger was the first to go to the penalty spot. "Wolkswagen", as he was nicknamed by Rocco, didn't miss his shot. 1-0 for Milan. Then, Causio's turn came. Villiam Vecchi dived on his left and saved the "Barone's" shot.

A scream of joy was transformed right away into a scream of dissapointment: Angonese, the ref of the match, decided to have the shot retaken and in his second tentative, Causio scored. Next, Benetti's turn, who with a shot on the right of Zoff put the Rossoneri back into the lead. From this moment on, the Villiam Vecchi show started: first he saved the shot from Anastasi, diving on his right and blocking the ball, then, returned the hard but central shot of Bettega, while in the time being, Chiarugi and Biasolo secured the decisive lead for Milan. Milan scored again with Magherini, after the Juve defender, Spinosi, having sent the ball outside of the net. The last penalty was taken by Cuccureddu: saved yet again by Vecchi, but the inflexible Angonese ordered the shot to be retaken and on the second try, the defender from Sardagna, scored a useless goal.

The hero of Salonicco Vecchi had emulated his exploits 45 days later, thanks to his grinta, his style, his class and his courage. Zoff, the great Zoff, this time around, had to bow in front of his colleague that had lead his teammates to a victory that the taste of the big revenge on the Juventini rivals. The Milan of that season was very strong, the strongest. Only destiny prevented it from conquering the Scudetto of the Star (10th Scudetto) with six years of anticipation, but this Coppa Italia made it clear to all, critics and fans, the great qualities of this Milan squad, lead by a fabulous Gianni Rivera with the collaboration of the solid and concrete Bigon, of the funambulist Chiarugi, of the hard working Benetti. However, in that night, the greatest of all of them, was Villiam Vecchi, that 30 years later, has relived the exact same sensations of this July 01st, 1973 through his pupil, Dida. Cool on his line and implacable like him, against the same black and white jerseys. An incredible story that has repeated itself. A Milan story."

A new one: It happened in August: The last perle of the Capitano. From the Forza Milan of August 2003. Enjoy!

The 1995-96 season opens with a win in Padova, to be remembered for at least two reasons: the first goal of George Weah with the Milan jersey and the last goal of Baresi, at the end of his famous "Coast to Coast". At the end of that season, it was Scudetto # 15.

By Carlo Pellegatti.

I remember with affection each Milan of the past 40 years. For exemple, the one lead, inspired, illuminated by Gianni Rivera, accompagnied me from the victories in black and white (the triumphs of the 60's) to the successes in colour in yellow, the yellow of the Star (10th Scudetto in 1979). Or the one, that displayed the first signs of extreme class, in the middle of the 80's, and then later, oozing all their class under the guidance of president Berlusconi and Arrigo Sacchi. I have admired the implacable and relentless record making machine, lead by Fabio Capello, the Great. It was a Milan, that in these early years of the 1990's, had won the Scudetto at the end of the winter, without any possibility or hope for the opponents.

Strong, very strong are the emotions that the team led by Zaccheroni gave us, with their magnificient run of 7 wins. Never, never will I forget this goal by Ganz that gave us the win against Sampdoria, or those final minutes of the Fiorentina-Lazio, or the unbelievable save from Abbiati on the shot from Bucchi on the unforgettable afternoon in Perugia.

Unrepeatable, unforgettable this penalty kick by Sheva in Manchester, with the Cup, held 40 years later, by another Maldini. From Cesare to Paolo, while thousands upon thousands of lights shining, the flashes of the cameras of Rossoneri tifosi, illuminating this magnificient sight.

However, one of the Milan that entertained me the most, one of the richest Milan in terns of players of class, was the Milan of the 15th Scudetto, of the 1995-96 season. Between the posts, Sebastiano Rossi, the keeper of the records. The defence was composed of the 4 Padri della Patria ( 4 Fathers of the Nation) - Baresi, Costacurta, Maldini and Tassotti - with the addition of a champion like Panucci. In midfield, Desailly, Albertini, Boban, Donadoni, Eranio, Lentini, Di Canio to inspire the fantasisti Savicevic and Roberto Baggio with Weah and Marco Simone up front. Each of these names give me the goosebumps. What a marvelous cocktail of champions!

I still remember the emotion of seeing Roberto Baggio walking in Milanello, or waiting, in front of the door that leads from the dressing rooms to the Club House, for Boban and Savicevic, the Absolute Genius. No one forgets the smile of George Weah when he was parking one of his 1000's cars, nor forgetting his joyous salute, each day, with a warm voice:"Ciao, Carlos!". What a great Milan, what amazing wins that year, unforgettable actions and plays produced by these players with feet of pure and limpid class.

Everything began on this first day of the season, on a hot and humid day. It was on the 27th of August of 1995 and the Ragazzi are to play in Padova. The stadium is fully packed with everyone anxiously awaiting to see in action the Dream Team built and wanted by Silvio Berlusconi, who was present on the first match of that team, a few weeks earlier, at Alessandria, that ended with a promising and convincing 3-0. Very early on, at the 6th minute, the first emotion. Roberto "Zucchero filato" Baggio sends a sweet ball in the middle and George Weah jumps and heads it into the top corner. It's the first prowess of a great forward, one of the best and strongest of the History of Milan. Some of his goals, some of his moves and actions, some of his inventions are inimitable and unique. We all remember his goals at the Olimpico, against Lazio and Roma or the one against Juve, on match day six, when Milan went top of the table, waving at the rest of the teams and running towards Scudetto # 15. But from him, other than the one that I have voted best goal of the century, - the goal against Verona after a 90 metres run, "coast to coast" -, I also want to remind his other magic and inexplainable slalom in its ballistic absurdity, when surrounded by at least 5 opponents like the best James Bond, went past them all and gave the ball to Blomqvist to beat the Bologna keeper. You want to see that goal again? I remind you the date: 16 February 1997.

But let us get back to this first day of the 95-96 season, where Padova equalises in the middle of the first half with Amoruso. One minute from the half time, Franco Baresi goes into one of his trademark Coast to Coast. When our Capitano goes on his runs forward, the whole team is taken by goosebumps and projected in attack by the push forward of its fuoriclasse and we are all always touched and moved by that, as if we were witnessing Gulliver in the Country of the Lillipuziani.

All the Milan fans realize right away that this is not the usual run forward with a precise pass to a teammate at the end of the action. Not this time. The path before him turns into a large boulevard. "L'immensità che é diventato regola" (the Immensity that became a rule, one of the many nicknames of Franco Baresi), increases his speed, passes the ball to Weah, whom with one of his trademark feint opens up the Padova defence wide and returns the ball to Baresi, now alone in front of the opposition's keeper Bonaiuti. Time stops and is suspended for a long moment. Everyone stops breathing, even my voice in front of my microphone is stopped. It's been since the 25th of March of 1990 that we have not been screaming of joy for a goal of our Grande Capitano, in Serie A. Five long years have passed and with a soft and swift touch, beats the keeper and scores the goal of the lead. Everyone runs towards him to hug and congratulate Him. Everyone is happy, moved. It is not a normal goal, it's a goal by Franco Baresi. He that spits his blood and soul for Milan and making sure that the ball doesn't go beyond the Milan goal line, has given the lead to Milan.

The Ragazzi then would went onto win the match, that would remain unforgettable as it marks the first win of a season, dominated, and because it also celebrates the first official goal of a legendary striker, but above all, because, Franco Baresi, in that hot August afternoon, scored his final goal of his unreachable carrier. An historic goal, because everything that is related to Baresi is historic!

KONDR · 2 марта 2005

It happened in May: Carletto salutes San Siro with 2 goals.

The last game of Carlo Ancelotti in front of his own public turned into a triumphant celebration: two goals against Verona, the first double of his career, as a farewell gift to the Rossoneri, crowned Champions of Italy and undefeated. The myth of Gli Invincibili (the Invincibles) was born.

By Carlo Pellegatti.

December and May. These are the favorite months of the Rossoneri fans. On December 16th, 1899, Milan was "born", that a few decades later, in the very last month of the year, is looking at the rest of the world from the top, conquering two consecutive Intercontinental Cups, in 1989 and 1990. May, however, is the month where the harvest of the hard work of the previous months of football are done. Scudetti and Cups, bandiere and happiness have been warming the heart of the Milanisti, by the already warm sun, under the blue sky and a splendid moon. So many dates to remember in all the unforgettable of past months of may, however, in here, we want to focus on one particular date, a date very few have forgotten: the 17th of May of 1992.

Indeed, a week before, Milan had conquered, in Napoli, its very deserved 12th Scudetto, the second of the Berlusconi era, the first won by Fabio Capello, with players that a lot of people had labelled as tired, unmotivated, or worse, finished won a Scudetto in a devastating fashion. The 74 goals scored and only 21 allowed, confirm the ultra-dominance of the Milan style and game, with a stellar Van Basten, with 25 goals, finishing capocanoniere (best scorer). There are 82,000 fans at the San Siro on that hot sunday afternoon of mid May against a Verona already in Serie B, an unforgettable day, not only for the party and celebrations, in honour of a another title won by the Ragazzi, but for the splendid, moving scenario put into place by the gods of football, that offers intense and incredible and unexpected emotions to all the tifosi present.

Milan takes the lead after a penalty realized by Van Basten, at the 18th minute of the first half and then, doubles the lead through the other Dutch fuoriclasse, Ruud Gullit. That same Tulipano Nero (Black Tulip, one of the nicks of Gullit given by the legendary Pellegatti), that leaves the field, at the 21st minute of the 2nd half to Carlo Ancelotti, for his final match with the Milan jersey. We had called him Terminator, for his strength, force, for his determination, but above all for his iron knees (after his many surgeries on his knees). Ancelotti, however, also represents the axis on which Sacchi has built his team that put the whole world under the feet of his Milan.

Intelligent, ready, reactive, intuitive, it was him that has always regulated the tempo in midfield, the rythm of the game, of the actions, giving the signal for his teammates to practice their ferocious pressing. We've been privileged to watch a few matches of Milan from the touchline and we have never forgotten one episode. During a friendly game against Porto, a portuguese player has the ball in his feet, accross the midfield line. Ancelotti, along a teammate, Angelo Carbone, gets near the prey. Improvisingly an order:"Now!". The two, like panthers, run at full speed towards a zebra drinking water, nonchallently at Masuri Lake, circle the opponent and take the ball away from him. Splendid maestro, great coach on the field of this fantastic machine, the Milan of Sacchi.

But Ancelotti was not only head and brain, he was not only feet and stamina, he was not only courage and determination, Ancelotti was also (and maybe above all) heart, a big generous Rossonero heart. The tifosi have understood that soon and they have loved him immediately, and specially he became the favorite son of the Gods of Calcio, that are living way above, in the Olympe and are feeding their most belooved creatures with "ambrosia", the nectare of glory. He drunk a lot of it on the 18th of April of 1989, the day before this unforgettable Milan-Real Madrid that not only entered into History, not only for the mind-blowing and extraordinary result itself, but also for this image still clear and vivid in the minds of the Milan fans: the powerful shot from way outside the box from Terminator, a shot that went right below the cross bar and Carletto's crazy run towards the Milan bench.

Sacchi then decides to leave Milan and goes to become the coach of Italy, that it is worth mentionning it, manages to conquer after the historic victory in Spain in 1982, the highest result for a national team: the 2nd post in the United States in '94. He also wants the precious collaboration of Carlo Ancelotti, that contributes in the conquest of the Scudetto helping his natural successor, Demetrio Albertini. Fabio Capello takes him on the bench for the final game, in this magnificient afternoon of mid may. I am with my microphone and beside me, the current director of Milan Channel, Mauro Suma and another great friend, Daniele Gallo, that like me, have liked Carlo Ancelotti in a sincere and natural way. We look at each other in the eyes, with a similar thought :"Imagine if he scores today. Today, in his last game."

Eleven minutes after entering on the field, on the 32nd minute of the second half, Carlo gets the ball at the edge of the box after a clearance by the defence and lets go a fierce, strong and precise shot. "Gooooooooooo!!!". Thanks Vulcano, God of Metallurgia, for having gifted him and to all of us, this joy! We are still hugging each other for the prowess of the Rossonero fuoriclasse when Ancelotti intercepts a pass from a Verona player and a second later, he is in front of Verona keeper, one on one while the whole of San Siro, not believing what they are witnessing, are holding their breathe for a moment. I can't bear it neither. I can barely shout in the microphone "Terminator is alone in the box" when Carlo, with the coolness of the best Van Basten, beats the keeper, coming to him, with a soft and swift shot that ends in the back of the net. After having scored, while he goes on a frenetic run, followed by all his teammates, we are certain, that even on Mount Olympe, the powerful Zeus, the wise Goddess Atena, the splendid Apollo, are all giving him a standing ovation that the last time it was that intense, it was in the times of Omer.

The splendid adventure of Carlo Ancelotti, member of a Great Milan, ends. He retires from the action with a fantastic "doppietta" (two goals, literally, a double), a feat never done before in his long career of 10 years in Serie A. Now, he is no more named "Terminator", now he is sitting on the Milan bench and we look up to the Mount Olympe because Carlo is not only in the Legend, but he has also entered into the Myth. Yes, because a trophee won by Ancelotti would have a taste different from all the others, it would have the taste of ambrosia, the nectare of the Gods.

FORZA CARLETTO!!!

rom the September 2003 of Forza Milan! issue. Translated from Italian to English by me. Enjoy!

It happened in September: A swan takes off from the Adriatic.

Three goals from Marco Van Basten gives the first win away of the 1992-93 season, at the end of thriller of game like few we've seen: Pescara leading 4-2 until 8 minutes from the end of the first half, before the Dutch storm swept everything on his path. Maldini and Lentini are the other Milan scorers.

By Carlo Pellegatti.

Who knows how we will call Carlo Ancelotti's Milan! Certainly we have to wait until its cycle, newly opened after the recent triumphs in the Cups, for the cycle to be complete and then, we would be able to give an adjective for the splendid Ragazzi of this beginning of century. Indeed, as each great team of the Berlusconi era has been described by an adjective that has been remembered in the memory of the Rossoneri tifosi. The team of Arrigo Sacchi, that has marvelled the world with its philosophy and its style, has been defined as the Milan of Gli Immortali (the Immortals) while Fabio Capello's team, the team that beat incredible records, has been named the Milan of Gli Invincibili (the Invincibles).

Indeed that group, organized, compact, incredibly strong and splendidly united, the Falange Macedone of the twenty-first century, has offered an historic prowess in that far away September of '92, even more astonoshing by the brillant stats that have always accompagned the Invincibles. If the three first Scudetti won, for exemple, had 3 points for each victory, the Ragazzi would have collected 78 points during the 1991-92 season, 68 in the '92-93 season and 69 during the 93-94 season, with the last 2 Scudetti have seen Milan finish the season at a slow pace, with the title won a long time in advance. Even in the 1995-96 season, great stats with 21 victories, 10 ties and only 3 losses for a total of 73 points.

Let us get back to that month of September of 1992. Milan, having finished the previous season scoring 8 goals in the game away to Foggia, against the men of Zeman, are presenting in their first away game of the new season with the new reinforcements such as Lentini, Eranio and the Carezza del Montenegro Dejan Savicevic but without Ruud Gullit, with Papin (bought from Marseille) and Boban coming back form his loan spell at Bari, not available.

There's a big enthusiasm at the Adriatico Stadium. The biancoblù (blue and white nick of the Pescara team ), of Giovanni Galeone have just conquered their promotion to Serie A and there are 25,000 spectators that have left the beaches still hot, on this September 13th, 1992 to admire the new champions of Italy against a Pescara spectacular in Serie B who started in Serie A the previous week with a resounding debut at the Olimpico (Rome) where they beat Roma. It's a hot day, a terrible heat inside the stands and inside the press-section of the stadium, but we would have never imagined, me and my colleague Calathopoulous of the sporting section of Mediaset, to witness such an absolutely fascinating game, full of emotions, rich of incredible events, of goals and prowesses.

After only one minute of play, and Francesco Antonioli (Milan's keeper at the time) is beaten by a deviation from Allegri. Right away, it's 1-0 for the hosts, but the first 15 minutes are among the most explosive I have ever been witnessed to. In the 3rd minute, Donadoni takes a corner kick and Paolo Maldini, in a jump like Barishnikov, beats the Pescara keeper, Savorani. At 1-1, I am more relaxed, but in the 6th minute, the emotions increase when Gigi Lentini, great and unlucky "Easy Rider", scores his first goal with the Rossonero jersey with a splendid bycicle kick after a delicious pass from Il Genio Savicevic. What a goal, what a prowess!

After that goal, the games seems to be going in a descending phase, but who's expecting two own goals in the space of three minutes by the Capitano, Franco Baresi, both with his thigh(!), and both from shots from long range? The first one after a free-kick shot taken by Nobile, and the second, by Allegri, with the ball, twice took an evilish trajectory going above the head of the poor Antonioli, right below the cross-bar, before ending in the net: 3-2 for Pescara, that soon turns to a severe 4-2, 10 minutes later when Massara beats the Milan defence, unbalanced, to find himself one on one with the Milan keeper being beaten. Milan, that have not lost a game for more than a year now, are on the verge of the most improbable and unexpected debacle.

After 14 very long minutes, it's His turn to become a protagonist, the prodigious, god-sent, Swan of Utrecht, the unique and true heir of Ciullo d'Alcamo, the poete precursor of Dolce Stile Nove, the Guido Guinizzelli of world football...sorry for the pause, let us all give him a standing ovation...Marco Van Basten!!! In the 37th minute, he receives the ball, from his other partner of Liriche Roberto Donadoni, and beats the keeper with as swift and precise as deadly touch. The game is re-opened now. After two minutes, another scream, but this time, from the Milanista part of the stadium: it is still Him, Van Basten, that scores the goal of 4-4.

No, this goal is not going to be catalogued as a mere important statistical moment of the game. No, this is one of the extraordinary magics of the splendid Marco. Whomever has not been lucky enough to see that goal, must a friend who has has been lucky enough to have taped it. It's an opera art, from the Musée d'Orsay in Paris, the Museeum of the Impressionists, a chef-d'oeuvre that can be put side by side, for its sheer beauty, its colorfulness, for its delicatess of the touch, side by side with the Ninfee of Monet, the ballerines of Toulouse Lautrec or with the Horses of Degas. Van Basten receives a cross from the right and with his ankles as sensitive as the hands of Chopin, caresses the ball that stops on the spot at his feet, another touch, delicate and soft as Mohair and the keeper is beaten. What a delight for the eyes and the soul!

In the second half, the game loses of its crazy intensity of the first half, but the Milan of Fabio Capello wants to leave its trace even in the Adriatico Stadium of Pescara, on this September 13th, 1992. Seventeen minutes from the end, the stadium and the stands are swept by the favorite perfume of the Rossoneri fans, the perfume of the Tulips: Rijkaard sends a through ball to Van Basten, whom, after having surfed passed the defenders as if lead by the wind of sheer class, comes one on one with the Pescara keeper, Savorani, that he beats with a swift and delightful little elegant and splendid chip. Another page of football, with the griffe of the great players of Silvio Berlusconi, an unforgettable come back signed by Donadoni, Savicevic, Maldini, Lentini, Rijkaard and crowned by the golden-divine touch of Marco Van Basten.

In a brief post-sprictum, that sheds even more light on these Unreachable heroes. We have remembered the 8 goals of the away game to Foggia, the 5 of Pescara, however, the prowesses of monopoly of champions doesn't end there, as they've scored 20 goals (!) in three away games, the Ragazzi go to Firenze, at the beginning of October (1992) and beat or rather thrash the Viola

7-3. Victories, spectacle, goals, Scudetti, Cups: ladies and gentlemen, this was the Milan of Gli Invincibili! (The Invincibles). "

This is an absolutely amazing article, extracted from a fabulous book, Rossoneri Communque, where 25 persons, from all walks of life, from famous ex-Rossoneri, to famous coaches, singers, actors, or normal everyday people, all reunited with the same love for Milan tell us about what it is for them to be a Rossonero. This is just one section of the book, by a journalist, Davide Grassi. It's entitled "Io c'ero (Il film del Golden Boy e dello sciagiurato Egidio)" (I was there (the film of the Golden Boy and of the clumsy, maladroit Egidio). I am translating this part as it is an amazingly moving article that summarizes very faithfully the past 30 years of Milan in a nutshell. Each time I read it, I have goose bumps. Enjoy and as always, FORZA MILAN!

"I was there. I was there, in the middle of the 80, 000 fans at the San Siro. I remember the Golden Boy quite well: a delicious touch, caressing the ball, the perfection of the geometry. It was an incredible move. I have always seen him with the Captain's armband, Gianni Rivera. He was the symbol of the leader given to someone whom had won it all.

I was there when Gianni Lodetti, generous and loyal, was running his lungs out on the snowy San Siro. He was called basletta, which meant in Milanese dialect "mento pronunciato". And he was running, running. Before being sent away, without many compliments, far away from everything and forgotten by all. Gratitude is not of this world. From this moment, for the Rossoneri, it would be the start of the delusions, a series of finishing 2nd in the league, the fatal Verona, the suspensions of the Capitano (Rivera).

I was there when Nereo Rocco, il Paròn was leaving the field with the hand raised and a hat on his head which reminded me of the one of my father. As a good Triestano that he was, his sense of humor was very refined and his favorite line và in mona. And then, on his way to go after the Scudetto that escaped in a glass of Barbera beer.

I was there when the Milan jersey was composed of only the big red and black colours, with white shorts and black socks, with a ray of red. It was always like that. It would only become all white during away games. No one had yet invented those horrible multicolor jersey due to the marketing demands...

I was there when Egidio Calloni was missing goals impossible to miss. He was moving with the grace of an elephant in a crystal home. And then, he would miss it, regularly. Even when he was all alone, a metre away from the goal. The clumsy and maladroit Egidio, as he was called by the great late journalist Gianni Brera, but also happened to score from time to time. But it was mainly thanks to Rivera, whom was filling with ammunitions a gun that was firing with blanks. Gianni's elegance was that strident with the clumsiness of Egidio. The Beauty and the Beast.

I was there when the great Beppe Viola, Milanista journalist and radio commentator, once commented an incredible miss of the clumsy: "Big scoring chance for Milan, but Calloni clears the danger". He has nonetheless left his mark, Egidio, whom today is selling ice-creams. Everyone still remembers him, at the opposite of others. Because life is not always made of Van Bastens. And years later, looking in retrospect, the frustrations towards him have turned into affection. Time amortises everything.

I was there also when the Star (10th Scudetto) was won. In order to look for it, I went to Bologna by train, an autumn afternoon. "In Bologna they are friends", I was told, "not like in Verona". The Star was won indeed against Bologna, in the return game. Gianni (Rivera) was there, in the middle of the field, with a microphone in his hands. He was asking the tifosi to go away from the forbidden zone of the stadium, which was dangerous. They all left that zone. I still remember by heart the starting line up, with the reserves included. And the smile of Liedholm on the bench.

I was there, almost in disbelief in front of my very first real Scudetto, so much expected for so long. Conquered with De Vecchi and Chiodi and not Gullit or Van Basten. Among there was also a certain Franco Baresi. He was called el piscinin because he was a kid, a teenager. Some even went as far as calling him UFO, as he seemed coming from another planet: others called him Franz, in honour of Beckenbauer. The comparison makes him become embarrassed. I was there and I remember the memory of the invasion of the field, at the final whistle. And the scenes that preceded, the infantile joy of touching the posts of Ricky Albertosi.

I was there even after. I was there at the San Siro, and it was a very cold day. The game was Milan-Lazio. I was there. And just the thought of it makes me mad again about it. Some players had fixed the match. And it was right away fixed matches. I received a very cold surprise that Sunday at the match. However, the real cold happened only later, when the scandal was discovered. I was still a kid; for the first time I felt like I was betrayed. It was like if I had almost lost my innocence. Rivera and Rocco seemed quite far away now. The news exploded and arrived strongly, as a punch in my stomach. Albertosi, one of my idols, was heavily involved in that. Then the carabinieri (Italian police) arrived and took away a few people. Among them, there was also the president of Milan. From that day on, I stopped playing with the Panini stickers.

I was there the same, the following year. When "the Devil" was retrograded in the deep abyss of Serie B. And I still remember the joy of the Bauscia (in Milanese dialect, the name of Interisti). But also by the Gobbi , the Juventini. “Serie B, Serie B” was the humiliating chant with which they greeted us, cascivitt , us Milanisti. I was there in Serie B. Between the fields of province and the improbable fixtures. I was there, even some times in the stands, in the Curva Sud with my friends. Ready to leave right away if the ambiance got violent. Because football is a game, not a war. And I was there the year after, when Milan came back to Serie A. “Abbiamo Joe Jordan, abbiamo lo Squalo” (“We have Joe Jordan, we have the shark”) was the favorite song at the curva. We called him like that, the Scot, as he had broken all his front teeth during a match. When he was playing in a game, he would take his broken teeth off his mouth and in order to scare his opponents, he would simply laugh at them.

A foreigner in the Milan jersey after so many years. Some people went as far as talking about winning the Scudetto right away. It turned into a nightmare of a season. Losses, humiliations: a team completely lost, an inexistent organisation. I was there when Milan won the Mitropa Cup. And I admit, I was happy. I had the desire to win something, anything. “Basta perdere!” (No more losing!) I used to say. Yes, like that, just like what the Interisti are saying nowadays, who, never went into Serie B. And they never fail to remind us of that. And instead, we had to lose again. The season ended in the worst-case scenario possible: a useless promotion followed by the Serie B. This time around, on the field.

I was there. I was at San Siro the day of Milan-Cavese. A famous match, in his own way. I was there, but not alone. We were more than 60, 000. So many for a game of this kind. More than those who went to see Inter in Serie A. Yes, indeed, we have always been a little bit special, we cascivitt : faithful to the team, warm with our players. And patience if at the time we had Manfrin and not Van Basten. Forza Milan nonetheless!

I have continued to be there even after. Season ticket holder in the populars, the interminable wait before the Derbies, the friends of always. Few satisfactions, a lot of disillusions. Such as this Luther Blissett, coming from the team of Elton John. He was right away nicknamed Calonissett from the usual Brera (great Italian journalist). And it’s easy to guess the reason. It was still a modest Milan, which feared facing the black and blue and black and white jerseys, in front of Rummenigge and Platini. While we were with this Blissett whom would never score.

I was there, in one of the Coppa Italia matches, where Luther sent a penalty shot to the moon and the Milanisti tifosi applauded him the same, almost as a will to distinguish themselves from the overly critical “cousins”. I was there when we won a derby again. I remember clearly the winning header from Mark Hateley, suspended in the air above Guido Collovatti, whom changed team perhaps too fast going from Milan to Inter when things got bad for Milan. He went to the other side of town, to the Bauscia , then the stronger. I was there and I remember that I was hugging my friends. And also those who were sitting beside me, even if I had never seen them before. A derby won after so many years. I ran to get home to see that winning goal on TV again. It didn’t sound true to me. The illusion lasted not very long: Attila (Hateley’s nick) got injured soon and Milan became again a modest team. Even if the team had already the likes of Baresi and Tassotti. Even if there was Ago Di Bartolomei, a silent champion who left the team too early.

I was there during Milan-Waregem. I was there with my girlfriend. I was there at the beginning of the match, happy like a child. And I was there also at the end of the match. Heartbroken, with the eyes fixed on the field, while insults and bottles were flying from the stands towards the field. “Basta perdere!”. (Enough losing!), I was feeling like screaming those two words. But it wasn’t finished.

Soon, the state of the affairs of Milan would be revealed to all, more red than black. Farina, the president of Milan at the time, escaped abroad. Rumors of Milan going to file for bankruptcy started flying around. Maybe Milan would completely disappear, maybe it would have changed name. Who knows, Mediolanum Rossonera, as it happened with Fiorentina being renamed Florentia Viola. I was there. But I would have preferred not to be there. I was also there after that. When the Cavaliere of Arcore arrived. (Berlusconi).

I was there and I was watching perplexed and puzzled the helicopters landing in a majestic way. It seemed like a scene from Apocalypse Now. Good-bye Milan cascivitt I was thinking, good-bye Rivera. Instead of the Barbera beer of Rocco, now had arrived the time of the champagne of Berlusconi. Indeed, but Forza Milan the same! I was there, with my usual season ticket. But even that year, the victories didn’t come. Only a qualification for the UEFA Cup, obtained with all the difficulty of the world in a play-off match against Sampdoria.

I was there even the year after. However, for the first time in years, I wasn’t a season ticket older. I went to see Milan-Fiorentina, at the beginning of the season. I was astonished by Roberto Baggio, whom was even dribbling the grass. Even that year, we didn’t win anything, I was thinking. And however, the Scudetto arrived. I had suffered for so many years, I had been watching playing crappy and corrupted players. Now, as soon as I am away from my Milan, they had won the league title, a kind of destiny’s trick on me.

I was not at the Nou Camp in Barcelona, the following year. And I still regret it to this day. It was a great team, probably the most beautiful of all. The satisfaction was immense even more so because that European title got the merit of eclipsing the Scudetto of Inter. How different was the Milan of Gullit and Van Basten from the Inter of Matthaus and Brehme, just like in their respective tradition, they were displaying an efficient style, based on physical strength and speculation. Milan, on the other hand, we’re displaying a spectacular football, with elegance and crystal class. A matter of DNA.

I was there the following year when Milan also won the Intercontinental Cup. I was in front of my television. And I remember the goal from Chicco Evani, one of those who went down in Serie B, one of those to love. From nowhere to the stars, like in the fairy tales. And I remember again the fatal Verona, a malediction. And the fourth Champions Cup, with the goal from Rijkaard. The year after, I was there. However, I went rarely to the stadium. Super Coppa, Champions Cup, Intercontinental Cup: a triumphant path. It all seemed so easy. Yet, had they told me that a few years earlier, I would have never believed it. Then, arrived the season of Gli Invincibili (The Invincibles). Lead by Fabio Capello, brave and antipatic. Those were the years of the numerous Scudetti.

I was rarely at the stadium, I admit it. It all was too ruthless, too predictable. At the end, one also gets used to the victories. It’s difficult to say it, but it was the case. Milan had changed. Stronger, but less sympathetic, even at times, antipatic let us say it. Like for example in the occasion of the projectors in Marseille or the negative episode Borgonovo-Massaro-Baresi against Atalanta, in Bergamo. And then, the managerial rhetoric, the Lentini affair, the stellar salaries and transfer fees.

“Basta vincere!” (Enough winning) I would think, as if it were a something bad. But it was not just Milan that had changed. Everything in football had become a circus without soul, only business, billions and television ratings. But nonetheless, I was still there, because the incredible geniality and genius, and the unpredictability of Savicevic would reconcile me with the game of football. Just like he did with his goal against Barcelona, in the finale of the Champions Cup in 1994: beautiful and impossible. Because seeing Weah flying from one box to the other in San Siro to score against Verona, the same of the fatal Verona would continue to give a sense and a meaning to this sport.

Just like I was when Zaccheroni took Milan to the 16th Scudetto. It was beautiful, because no one was expecting it. And because, deep down, this was a Milan again Cascivitt . Not a great team, but with a soul. And it had the clean face of Leonardo, the intelligence of Bierhoff, the happiness and cheerfulness of Weah. And there I am still there now. Sometimes I go to the stadium. Only sometimes, because life devours your time. And also because with the passing of the years, you discover that the smile of a child can be more beautiful than a goal by Shevchenko (which would be more beautiful than a goal by Inzaghi, we already knew it).

It’s a little bit rhetorical, but it’s true. But I am still there. Because a feint from Rui Costa, a touch by Rivaldo, a pass by Pirlo are like your favorite song. Because a Milan goal, together with the friends, is a way to remain young forever. Because this game, this jersey, these colors, are inside and within you. And Rivera, Rocco, Lodetti, Prati, Liedholm, Baresi, Tassotti, Van Basten, Maldini (and why not, even the clumsy Egidio) go in front of you like a film. A big, great, beautiful film.”

KONDR · 2 марта 2005

This is the translation of a special forum held on the premises of la Gazetta last Thursday in honour of San Paolo’s 720 games for Milan in his career. La Gazzetta also invited a few people to honour this new record by the legendary Milan Captain. Enjoy! FORZA SAN PAOLO!!!

Cesare Maldini, is it true that as kid your son Paolo was a Juve fan?

Cesare Maldini: It’s true. Paolo had a poster of Juventus team in his room and Boniperti was one of his favorite players and he was always asking me about him. But it was Paolo whom chose Milan. When I realized that he was able to play, I asked him: “Milan or Inter” and he chose Milan.”

Mauro Tassotti: “Milan or Inter? Let us imagine that the mister (referring to C. Maldini) would have told him: “Milan or Milan?”.

Paolo Maldini: “No, it’s true. It was I whom chose. I was 10 years old.”

C. Maldini: “He followed the normal path, I took him to Linate and let him in the hands of Maestro Braga, whom is great with kids. Braga asked me where to play him and I answered him: where you want and I left because I saw there was a lot of people around. He put my son on the right wing and an hour later, I went to pick him up. It all began that day.”

P. Maldini: “There was a reason behind me being a fan of Juventus. I liked a lot the national team of 1978, which was full of Bianconeri. This is the first souvenir I have of football. I started on the right wing, then on the left, and at the end, I moved back, first right back since on the left back position, there was already Lorenzini.”

Nils Liedholm, on January 20th, 1985, you made Paolo start in Serie A. A very courageous move, given his very young age.

Nils Liedholm: “I believed that the way he was built physically and with a father like Cesare, whom had written the history of Milan and whom had taught him everything about football, could have played in Serie A without any problem. In Udine, Paolo was tranquil and quite on the bench, then someone got hurt…”

P. Maldini: “Andrea Manzo”.

N. Liedholm: “You always remember him…It seemed to me natural to make Paolo enter; I don’t even remember in what position. That Milan played really great…And then, I was used to youngsters. In 1978, I was the one to make Baresi start in Serie A, but I was afraid to lose my job as Rocco didn’t want an 18 years old libero/sweeper. With Roma, I gave Ancelotti his debut in Serie A at the age of 18. In that regard, Cesare, whom was coaching Parma at the time, helped me a lot. One day, I went to Parma with my son and Carletto played magnificently, so great that I don’t remember him playing that good again anymore.”

Franco Baresi: “What I remember from the debut of Paolo, is that it was really natural. I remember his great natural”.

C. Maldini: “One day, Spadino Selvaggi, told me: “nice lad your son”. I remember, that as soon as he entered on the pitch, he started to impress me.”

Filippo Galli: “ It was clear that Paolo would have gone to achieve great things. He was well built and strong physically. At the opposite of me…”

Bergomi, with 758 official matches, you are the Maldini of Inter. What does Paolo Maldini represent to you? Just an opponent?

Guiseppe Bergomi: “Duing a derby, there was a foul for us and he didn’t even give me enough time to take the free-kick, as he came right away shake my hand. Paolo is also a very generous guy, he helps me to raise money for the group of the Bindun. Our relationship continues. He will beat my record, it’s just as he deserves it.”

P. Maldini: “At that time, there was a special link between Interisti and Milanisti as the defence of the national team was completely from Milano: Baresi and I, with “Zio” Bergomi, Ferri and Zenga.”

Between you, teammates of the defence and Paolo, was the rapport between you, only professional?

Mauro Tassotti: “Our rapport has been a very particular experience. It’s always been the case, even to this day and that has characterized the work of Milan, even till today.”

P. Maldini: “Mauro was my roommate when we were playing away from home.”

F. Galli: “From time to time, I also joined you guys to lighten up the atmosphere.”

M. Tassotti: “I remember that with Sacchi, he was used to make a round of all the rooms to check that we were respecting the curfew, at 9.30 at which time all the lights were shut down and at that time, Sacchi had already been to check each room at least 4 or 5 times. And then, we were continue to talk once Sacchi had left.”

Alberto Zaccheroni, you have been the coach of the last Scudetto of Maldini: what struck you about Paolo?

Zaccheroni: “Paolo is the biggest talent and best player I have ever worked with. Even to this day, in Milan, I believe he still represents a point of reference for all He doesn’t speak much, but he is the first to arrive at Milanello and the last to leave. He plays the friendly game of the Thursday afternoon, against either the Primavera or an amateur side as if it were finale of the Champions Cup. Paolo has a great charisma. One observes the way he behaves and how hard he works and you realize: This is how it is at Milan. For a coach, it’s a great pleasure to have such a player in the team.”

For those who have had Paolo as a teammate, what has changed in the rapport with him?

Ancelotti: “For me, absolutely nothing. Maybe the question will arise when I’ll have to make some choices. So far, Paolo has always played, it could become a problem the day when he will be on the bench. One thing for sure, it will be another coach to do that. Looking in retrospect, I have once left him on the bench, against Brescia. Deep down, one lives also with those emotions.”

P. Maldini: “Yes but you made me play in the 2nd half.”

Who among all of you would have never imagined such a career for Paolo?

Liedholm: “I didn’t have a lot of dialogue with the players, but with the physical attributes of his, with his pace and with such a father, Paolo would have remained on the field for a long time. And this is precisely what has happened.”

C. Maldini: “His qualities were obvious, he who works that hard in the world of football, can only harvest certain things. However, I honestly didn’t imagine him to have the kind of career he’s been having.

F. Galli: “Paolo was on the right and on the left. An example for all. At the beginning, it is possible that everything goes your way, but the most difficult thing is to confirm it and to remain at that level. And he has managed to do that.”

P. Maldini: “Thanks to me, the left foot of Filippo has improved. One year, I played in central defence with Franco and this way, he (Filippo) moved to the left.”

F. Baresi: “Paolo has demonstrated continuity in everything. During my career, I have had great advantages as I have had these guys around me. I am honored that someone like him beats my record of games played. He deserves it.”

P. Maldini: “I’m almost embarrassed. I was very moved when I beat Rivera’s record. I am moved as well now that I have reached 720 matches.”

Tassotti, Galli, Baresi and Maldini, a mythical and legendary defence, the first of the Great Milan. Were there ever any misunderstandings between you?

F. Galli: “Sometimes, I didn’t understand the off-side trap.”

F. Baresi: “With Paolo, it was impossible to get upset. And when he did commit a mistake, no one told him anything.”

M. Tassotti: “We were all able to think as one person. We have played so many years together that every single movement was a movement by all of us.”

N. Liedholm: “Each Thursday, these 4 played 20 minutes against the Primavera of Capello. And in 4 against 11, the Primavera never scored against them.”

How long can Paolo still play at those levels of excellence?

A. Zaccheroni: “Without injuries, in this role and with Nesta beside him, at least 5 more years.”

P. Maldini: “But at this age, it’s difficult to make long term projects. My contract runs until 2005 and then, we’ll see.”

A. Zaccheroni: “As Inter’s coach, I repeat that you can easily play 5 more years.”

C. Ancelotti: “From the physical point of view, I can see him even manage the games during the week. First let him arrive till 2005, then we’ll see.”

Let us talk about the Ballon d’Or. You, would you give it to Paolo?

F. Galli: “He’s been at the highest level for 20 years…”

M. Tassotti: “Paolo deserves it because he had a terrific season winning the Champions League and the European Super Cup. This award is not for his career but his past year. However, being a defender, doesn’t help it…”

A. Zaccheroni: “They refused to give it to Baresi but they gave it to Sammer.”

G. Bergomi: “He deserves it, but the fact that last year, they didn’t give it to Roberto Carlos makes me think.”

F. Galli: “I am fan, but Paolo is from another category than Roberto Carlos.”

Phone call from Fabio Capello: “When I think about Paolo, an anecdote comes to mind. Once, as the coach of the Primavera, playing away to Torino, one of the coaches of Torino…”

C. Maldini: “Radice, it was Radice…”

F. Capello: “…asked me for what reasons I was playing the son of Cesare Maldini. I answered him: “we will talk about that a few years later, this kid is a true fuoriclasse .” By the way, Paolo, if you decided to come back with the national team, it would be a great thing.”

P. Maldini: “It’s hard to say good-bye to the national team, but it’s also difficult to make a U-turn.”

F. Capello: “Yes, but sometimes, one can change their mind.”

P. Maldini: “I will think about it, but the decision has already been made.”

The following data come from the Official site. They had posted it last week, prior to the Milan-Juve game.

The Curriculum Vitae of Paolo Maldini

Some of the most important dates in his career

01 May 1984: Debut in Milan in a friendly game in Angera (at the age of 15!!!).

20 January 1985: Debut in Serie A with Milan at Udinese.

08 April 1985: Wins the Cannes International Tournament with the Italian Under 17 Team.

21 August 1985: Debut in Coppa Italia.

18 September 1985: Debut in European Cups.

12 November 1986: Debut with the Italian Under 21 (at the age of 18!!!).

04 January 1987: First goal in Serie A.

11 February 1987: First goal with the Italian Under 21 team.

28 October 1987: Debut with the Italian Olympic Team.

31 March 1988: First Cap with Italy in Yugoslavia.

19 February 1989: 100th game in Serie A.

04 October 1992: 200th game in Serie A.

20 January 1993: First goal with the Italian NT.

17 February 1995: 300th game in Serie A.

25 April 1999: 400th game in Serie A.

10 September 2000: 113th Cap with Italy, equalling the record of Dino Zoff against Romania, in Milano.

17 June 2002: 126th Cap with Italy, all time record.

15 March 2003: 500th game in Serie A.

22 March 2003: 501st game in Serie A, equalling the record of Gianni Rivera.

28 May 2003: Wins his first Champions Cup as the Captain of Milan, his 4th in total.

1 Man, 1000 Matches.

721 matches with Milan and counting, in all competitions as of today, including the game in Bruges.

126 Caps for Italy.

100 friendly games with Milan between 1984 and 1997.

50 friendly games with Milan between 1997 and now and counting.

Palmares:

6 Scudetti: 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999.

4 Champions Cup: 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003.

4 European Super Cup: 1989, 1990, 1995, 2003.

2 Intercontinental Cup: 1989, 1990.

1 Coppa Italia: 2003.

3 Italian Super Cup: 1992, 1993, 1994.

Other titles:

Mundialito Clubs: 1987.

Military World Cup with the Italian Military Team: 1989.

Coppa Disciplina A: 1989.

Trofeo Berlusconi: 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2002.

Capodano Tournament, Oviedo Tournament, Memorial Giorgio Ghezzi, Glass Point Cup, Opel Master, Trofeo Tim, etc...

Individual titles:

Bravo (Guerin Sportivo) in 1989.

Pallone d'Oro (El Pais, Uruguay) in 1995.

Calciatore d'Oro in 1995.

Most Valuable Player of the 2003 Champions League Final.

To all the above, one can add, some other outstanding achievements for San Paolo, such as:

He won the Champions League/Champions Cup, more than any other player (with Costacurta) still active (4 times and counting... ). In the history of the Champions Cup, only one or 2 players have won more Champions Cup than him, those being the captain of the Real Madrid of the 60, who won 5 Champions Cup. He has a very valid shot at reaching that record as well.

Two more titles can be won by San Paolo before the end of the calendar year, one with the team and one individually.

After reading all these, only one word:

FORZA SAN PAOLO!!!!

IMMENSO!!!UNICO!!! IRRAGGIUNGIABILE!!! INCOMPARABILE!!!

KONDR · 2 марта 2005

From the book "Rossoneri Comunque"

It's all Castellini's fault (by Umbersto Nigri, journalist)

I'm sitting in front of this bastard of a shrink a my mind goes back to when it all started. He ask's me name, age, occupation; I answer to everything, taking my time, "I'm a sports journalist" I tell him and in the mean time my mind goes back to that day - Me and my brother are playing ping-pong, the radio is on, Milan is two goal under in Cesena Vs Cesena, last game in the Championship, season 1981-82. I think I've been waiting for this moment for 20 years. I've chosen the best psychiatrist in Rome, and now I'm sitting in front of him and telling him that as a kid I used to play ping-pong and that ping-pong is a beautiful game even though today they are ruining it but this is not the POINT; the Point is that on the 16th May 1982 I was playing ping-pong so I did not have to think about anything else, I did not have to think about Milan, that is losing 2-0 and if nothing happens will be relegated in Serie B because Genoa is winning 1-0 in Napoli and a miracle is needed; Milan winning and Genoa losing- the miracle happens, Jordan scores and Romano draws and even Napoli now has tied the game and scores again and now is winning and now Antonelli (Milan player) advances on the right, he gets ahead of two players, and shoots a "bomb", Enrico Ameri on the legendary live radio broadcast "Tutto il calcio minuto per minuto" comments "Grandissimo goal di Antonelli", from the main Radio Rai studio Bortoluzzi "a master" immediately updates the placings and says "At this moment Milan is safe"- and I'm happy and know that I will never be this happy in all my life. I'm thirteen a scream "Siamo salvi" (We're safe) and think that my life will be beautiful and lovely things will happen to me and that in the end justice always triumphs, always; in the mean time Milan's game is over, in the mean time Castellini (Napoli GK) "gifts" a corner kick, that's how it was described on "La Gazzetta dello Sport" match report, regala (gifts); the Genoani take their corner kick and Faccenda that had entered the pitch only seven minutes earlier scores his first Serie A goal, with a header, later in the press conference he tells reporters that he had already missed 7 goals that season and that this one I could not miss because it meant Genoa in Serie A, and relegation for Milan- now I'm 33 years old and I tell Mr. B (it's the initial of the shrinks name that obviously I will not name but does really exist and I'm really sitting in front of him, now, and I'm even wearing my "good suit", the one I weared on my College Graduation day and today I only wear when somebody gets married, because this is an important day, a day I've been waiting upon for 20 years, 20 years to find revenge from that bastard of Castellini that did it on purpose, I'm sure of it and nobody can say the contrarary; anyway Mister B does really exist and he's telling me that within any individual you will find a childhood trauma and that I'm advantaged to others cause I "know" what caused my trauma, even if honestly it's a strange one, objectively strange he describes my trauma; yes Mister B does exist and proof of that is the 110 Euros he $crewed me); "I am 33 years old" I told Mr. B and that day I stopped believing that my life would be beautiful and that lovely things would happen to me and that in this World "col cazzo" their is justice, and that, in the end their will always be somebody ready to $crew me.

Mister B does not understand, he tells me that my story is nice, detailed, but does not understand, unless, he says, you don't think that Castellini did it on purpose. Wow you got it in the end, sure he did it on purpose, have you ever seen a goalkeeper "deliver" the ball backwards instead of forward? Mr B admits he has never seen such thing. Now we must understand, Mr B adds, even if Catellini did it on purpose, we must understand, now that we know that you think that Luciano Catellini $crewed you that day and that from that day onwards you believe their is no day in which you haven't been $crewed, like you've been telling me, we must now try to understand how all this affects life, your life, even though let me frankly tell you it would of been much better if your life was affected by something more important, something like seeing a snake, a dying animal, assisting a relative during his last moments, being dumped by a girlfriend, something objectively more important than Castellini.

I don't answer, and think that I well know that in life their are things more important that Castellini, for sure, but what can I do if I've been asked to write a story on Milan and that the first thing that came to my mind was Luciano Castellini? What can I do if when I think of my life the first thing that "comes" to me is Milan, and when I'm thinking of Milan I recall only sad or insignificant moment like Pasinato playing with us in Serie B, Stefano Chiodi that misses a goal, Gianni Rivera speaking to US prior to Milan Vs Bologna instructing all the tifosi to move back cause otherwise we'll lose the match 2-0? And again my mind goes back to Beppe Viola (a Milan fan journalist that died young), and his "Domenica Sportiva" match reports, cause Beppe Viola was the best, and you would admit that too Mr B instead of giving me all your bull$hit: (We must understand if Umberto Nigri is suffering from schizophrenic delirium and consequently, I'm saying this without irony, a self inflicting delirium ...........)

I stop listening to him, and go back to my "sad" thoughts, my mind goes back to Marco Van Basten, his farewell day, that BTW is the saddest day in Red&Black history; I recall every second of that "goodbye": Van Basten running in his jeans, reindeer jerkin and pink shirt in tears, Milan and Juventus lined up at midfield, Van Basten lifts his right arm, Van Basten that takes a looooong breath, Costacurta that passes in front of him, Billy has his tong out so he will not cry, now Van Basten shakes hand with Collina, more precisely it's Collina that takes his hands in his own, close up of his eyes filled with tears, the speaker announces his name, the supporters give him a standing ovation, the close-up lasts twelve seconds; I'm nearly crying in front of this coglione (********) that is telling me that I could be suffering of some strange mental problem, I don't understand, I cannot understand, I going to cry, I've seen these images thousands of times and every time it's the same; Marco Van Basten is now running, across the pitch, his arm up in the sky, they are joined together for a final applause, the cameraman back up, Van Basten "becomes" smaller in centre field, it's the most beautiful of images; I'm about to cry, I'm crying, luckily Mister B is so taken by his diagnosis to even notice, he's saying that maybe it's not schizophrenic delirium but something else, and starts telling me a story regarding his childhood,; Van Basten is standing in midfield and I'm with him, he turn, close-up bellissimo, if it was a movie shortly credits would start now, slow motion and moving music a must.- I'm now crying, I can't stop and my mind goes back to the finale of Martin Scorsese's film "The age of innocence", when the camera rises up to the window of "her" Delen Olenska-Michelle Pfeiffer, and Neuland Archer-Daniel Day Lewis is down below in the middle of the "shot", small and far away just like Marco Van Basten a second ago, at that point son Ted arrives and says "he's on the third floor", together they look up and Ted says "It must be the one with curtains"

Him: I think I'll sit for a moment (he sits)

Ted: Don't you want to come?

Him: I don't know, Ted you go, maybe I'll follow

Ted: What should I tell her?

Him: Don't you always have something to say?

Ted: I'll just say your old style a you prefer walking three flights of stairs that taking the elevator.

Him: (pause) just tell her I'm old style

Close up of Him, close-up on Her banging window, a sun beam strikes a reflection of Her; the camera is back on Him, his eyes are shut, in the background now the Ocean appears and Her face is upon it, she's about to smile to us like Marco Van Basten was about to cry, while all this is "happening" this "********" of Mister B remains insensitive and continuous to tell me that he doesn't go to the dentist any longer even now days that he's not a kid any longer, for something that happened years back and has something to do with a bridge being swept away by a mud slide and he was going to the dentist or something like that, at that point I stopped listening again. I understand what he was trying to tell me with this story, cause it even happened to me to associate a word with a sensation, for ever- the word ANKLE to a sense of pain and injustice cause it was for one ankle that Marco Van Basten stopped playing.

At this point Mister B takes a long breath that maybe means that I'm a desperate case and then tells me that living like this is objectively "hard work"- he tells me "due to the fact that I think that I'm continuously conned by people and therefore I trust nobody implies a level of attention within me towards multi-stratus reality so: A) Attention towards real time attention towards elaborating of what has just happened C) the search for reassurance, in particular from people you deeply care for".

After a brief but very instance moment, Mister B adds that my "case" is fascinating especially for him because he is studying at present the "theory of chaos" and would like to know if in these 20 years I've ever thought about Luciano Cartellini, if (I will quote Mr B's words) "Associate the Castellino Association with Castellini or Faccenda with as an example Faccendieri" While I force myself not to laugh thinking that this Mister B is a complete imbecile, and out of politeness I answer that no, I have never associated the image of Castellini to nothing and for sure not the Catellino Association that I don't even know what the fUk is, same for Faccenda and Faccendieri- So while I'm answering on Castellini, once again my mind goes back to Van Basten and to all the "sad" Milan days, and ask myself, and ask Mister B, why does it happen, why, every time I look back to my life and everything that is closely related to it, even on my glorious Football team, sad things come to my mind?

Mr B seems indeed stroke by this question, and starts reflecting upon it, at least this it what appears to me; suddenly he speaks out and says "This is the point, the fundamental issue at stake" because .... "Now that 20 years have passed and whatever was the trauma that caused your distrust upon "things", and even if you may think that it's all Castellini's fault, even admitting that Napoli's goalkeeper that was once a Torino GK winning a Scudetto and was known by everybody as IL GIAGUARO (The Jaguar) for his feline ability (I forgot to mention that Mr B is very passionate about Football), now, even is, and I would like to underline IF, IL GIAGUARO long ago FvkEd up, this Fvk up should not ruin your life and you should stop hurting yourself, and if you want me to tell you the full story, today you don't even have a valid motive having a President like Silvio Berlusconi, with all that comes along with a man like that- at this point Mr B seems out of control. You should explain to me how on earth could you support a team that has a man like Silvio Berlusconi as president, amen to that ......................

At this moment I interrupt Mr B and tell him that it's about time everybody should stop on this Berlusconi story that BTW you can offend as many times you wish; their should be a stop on everybody telling us that you can't support Milan cause Berlusconi is our President, as if he "invented" Milan. and anyway Dear Mr B all you say shows that you've never read Macomb Lowry's "Beneath the Volcano" a brilliant book, a book that narrates how you can love somebody in spite of everything.

What right do you have dear Mr B of accusing us Milanisti of supporting a team that has Berlusconi as president; what right, Dear Mr B and all the others, do you have saying this to US. We that have seen Marco Van Basten in tears, we that have known Luciano Catellini and have been relegated in Serie B for his fault, and did not cry like instead Interisti would have done, that "pass" their lives relating to each other their "disgraces" and "make" of each date of their historic downfalls a date of morning and accusations. No, we were indeed relegated but the year after we were in San Siro giving our unconditioned "love" to IL MILAN, in 60.000, in 70.000 like when we cheered a goal Vs Cavese and a late equalizer agaists Catania or "goal formidabile" by Walter Alfredo Novellino in a match against Spal, a header, in a horizontal position, 20 centimetres from the ground- And that day I was in THE STADIUM and was happy, again, I travelled for Km 1000 together with my friend Ruggero, to see Milan playing Vs Cavese, cause Ruggero and I were born in a $hithole called Cerignola, a place were when a team wins a championship regardless of it's "division", on that day everything goes wild, always; but I love that $hithole cause it's the place were I was born, just as I love Milan, always.

And so Mr B I really don't care if you don't understand; I care preserving the memory of Ruggero and me, embracing after Novellino's goal, happy to the extreme; what I really care about is that those whom did not "live" the Castellini drama may read this story and understand what it really means being MILANISTA.

A great article posted by Carson on The Divin Swan that I feel deserves a spot in this thread!

MARCO UNICO, PER SEMPRE, NEL NOSTRO CUORE!!!!

Marco Van Basten - the new Dutch coach

Meanwhile, Holland have today confirmed Marco Van Basten as the new national boss after the departure of Dick Advocaat.

The Milan legend, who was forced to retire from the game due to an ankle injury, has been given a four-year deal.

Van Basten will be aided by John Van't Schip who also played in Serie A with Genoa in the past.

Van Basten spent six seasons with the Rossoneri after his arrival in 1987 from Dutch giants Ajax. The striker scored 24 goals in 58 games for the national side.

channel4

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Golden Great: Marco Van Basten October 1999 Issue

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We kick off a new regular monthly feature starring some of the great names who’ve graced Serie A over the years. In Milan’s centenary year, Giancarlo Rinaldi picks out a Rossoneri legend, Marco Van Basten

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Dutch Master

When it comes to scoring goals in the modern era there has never been a player like Marco Van Basten. Over six stunning seasons the Milan man confirmed himself the most complete striker of the past two decades. And it brought him his fair share of honours.

The Dutch genius started his career with Ajax where he was thrown into the first team as a teenager. It is a mark of his quality that Johan Cruyff reckoned he was ready for his debut at the age of just 17. Strong in the air, deadly off either foot and with elegant skills he was a nightmare for any defender.

These qualities brought him a huge haul of domestic honours in Holland, but Milan magnate Silvio Berlusconi had bigger plans for him. The media millionaire was building a team of world-beaters at the San Siro and saw huge potential in Van Basten. Along with countrymen Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard he would help create the team of the decade.

Not that things started smoothly for the boy from Utrecht. A troublesome right ankle which would eventually finish his career ruined his first season in Italy. Indeed, there was plenty of speculation that Milan would rid themselves of the Dutch international who was out injured for six months of his first Serie A campaign.

But the Rossoneri had faith in Van Basten and that paid off big style. He helped them to three League titles, two European Cups, two Super Cups, two World Club Cups and was voted European Player of the Year three times in the space of just six years. It was little more than he deserved.

Of all three Dutchmen, the outstanding hitman was probably the best loved by the Milan supporters. They dubbed him ‘The White Swan’ for his elegant approach to the game. Even thundering shots past opposition goalkeepers seemed effortless. The high points of his meteoric Italian career are too numerous to mention. But after helping his country to the European Nations title of 1988 - including his memorable acute angle volley against Russia - he enjoyed a real purple patch. He put breathtaking performances back-to-back season after season.

In 1989 he struck twice to destroy Steaua Bucharest in the European Cup final and bring the trophy back to Milan for the first time in 20 years. He helped take his team to the same title the following season and in 1992 he crushed Gothenburg single-handed with four goals in one game. In Serie A he grabbed 90 goals over just six seasons.

But his crippling injuries started to take their toll towards the end of 1993 and against Marseille in yet another European Cup final he played his final game for Milan. After surgery and several failed comebacks he was forced to admit defeat in 1995 - at the age of just 30. The football world had been robbed of one of its greatest talents. In an emotional Press conference he told the world of his decision to give up the game.

The classy hitman could now hardly walk because of his injuries never mind compete at the highest level. Better to quit football than risk further damage. Van Basten took it philosophically. "I’ve tried acupuncture, I’ve even tried a few faith healers. But it hasn’t worked and when I stand up my ankle hurts. I’m still limping," he told the media pack. "I’ve had eight great years at Milan but now I have to stop. But that’s life."

Asked to pick out a personal highlight the big front man had little doubt. The Rossoneri’s European triumphs were many, but their first one remained the sweetest. Van Basten was carried away by the crowd’s support. "In Barcelona, before the final with Steaua, when we were in the team bus heading towards the Nou Camp and the streets were full of 90,000 of our fans," he said. "That was truly an amazing feeling."

None of those supporters will ever have forgotten Van Basten who is now happy living a quiet, family life far away from the football spotlight. He undoubtedly had the class and intelligence to become a top class coach but his injuries made him aware of a world outside the game. He has left anyone that saw him with some very special memories.

"My mind needs rest," he told one interviewer. "Especially because after my injury I noticed that there is more to life than I had realised. Instead of feeling uncomfortable without the daily routine of training and playing, I experienced a lot of nice things. It made me realise how large life is."

Although his career was cut short Van Basten achieved more than most players would dream of. So he is unlikely to be rushing back into the world of football despite all the skills he has to offer. But Milan would certainly welcome him with open arms if he ever changes his mind.

Marco not ready yet to return

For the past three years, the former European and World Footballer of the Year has spent his days ‘doing nothing.’ Those are Marco Van Basten’s own words, said with a little self-deprecating smile as he hones his already immaculate golf game. Not that he has been short of offers to go back to football. A whole host of clubs have flocked to the front door of his luxury pad in Monaco over the past few years.

Van Basten has watched former teammates such as Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard stroll into management, listened patiently to those who covet his equally sharp footballing brain, and then returned to the golf course and tennis court to while away what should have been the final days of his playing career.

Just approaching his 35th birthday, he considers himself still too young and too immature to give orders on the training ground. As for whether he will ever be ready to make a delayed transition from player to Coach, not even the man himself is sure.

"I had a good time, played until I was 28 and then had three difficult years with my ankle before I stopped being in football at 31. I still had problems with the ankle and had to resolve them. Now I’ve been doing nothing for three years - and really enjoying it. I feel happy and OK. I’m not too lazy to work. I just don’t feel something inside of me saying: ‘Let’s start doing something else now.’

Van Basten has taken a huge step back from public life to avoid the constant pressure that is involved in football. "I have to say that, while playing football is very nice, being a Coach or a trainer is something completely different. I am still someone who likes to do things, not tell others what to do."

But he can only go on playing golf and tennis every day for so long. If he is too young to work in management at 34, he is certainly too young to live the life of a retired banker. His sole involvement in football since being forced out with that recurring ankle injury, the result of years of hefty tackles, was an invitation to contribute to a FIFA task force which outlawed the challenge from behind.

When Van Basten first retired he felt it was a relief, saying: "After three years of pain I wanted a normal life again. Just imagine feeling pain every minute of the day." He wants the laws strengthened even more to protect skilful players and is clearly still bitter about the tactics which brought a premature end to his blossoming career. "I think, near the end of my career I was playing my best. I felt that every year I was getting better. I had more experience, more balance physically and mentally, with each season. It was pretty young to stop, only 28, and I always had the feeling that my good years were still to come," he says ruefully.

Football fans who remember the great man’s skills hope that eventually he will be ready to return and pass some of that magic on.

Not a fan

Marco Van Basten’s reluctance to become involved in football again could be traced back to comments made earlier in his career. Then he said: "I found out that out of 10 so-called top Coaches, only one is really able to improve the team. Six do no harm and three even manage to make the team worse.’

STAR RATING 8/10 An incomparable record of success while revolutionising the role of the modern striker. Cruel injury robbed him of making an even bigger impact on the Italian game.

Marco Van Basten

Date of Birth: 31/10/64

Place of Birth: Utrecht, Holland

Serie A Career: Milan (87-95) - 147 games, 90 goals

Serie A top scorer: 1989-90, 1991-92

Honours:

3 Dutch League titles (1982, 1983, 1985)

3 Dutch Cups (1983, 1986, 1987)

1 Cup-Winners’ Cup (1987)

1 European Championship (1988)

1 Serie A Title (1988, 1992, 1993)

2 European Cups (1989, 1990)

2 European Super Cups (1990, 1991)

2 World Club Cups (1990, 1991)

2 Italian Super Cups (1989, 1993)

1 FIFA World Player of Year title (1992)

3 European Player of the Year titles (1988, 1989, 1992)

A superb article-tribute on Cuore di Drago posted by Presidente on the Debate forum that deserves its place in this All of Fame!

Proud Paolo

Amy Lawrence

Sunday May 25, 2003

The Observer

Even if Paolo Maldini had only been an average footballer, say, a journeyman in Serie B , he would still have come across as one of those people the gods smiled upon. He is so strikingly handsome that Giorgio Armani picked him out of all Italy's footballers to be his perfect clotheshorse. He is a devoted family man whose wife - an extraordinarily beautiful model, of course - gave him two extraordinarily beautiful sons. He is fabulously wealthy, yet gives the impression of being completely unaffected by fame and fortune, and seldom graces the gossip columns. And on top of all these blessings, Paolo Maldini happens to be one of the most decorated footballers in the history of the game. He is the man every Italian male dreams of being, and every Italian female dreams of being with.

On Wednesday, Italian football's 'recordman' (he tops appearance lists for club and country as well as possessing a mantelpiece overflowing with medals) will lead out his beloved Milan against Juventus at Old Trafford for the Champions League final against Juventus.

It will be the sixth time he has played in European club football's showpiece occasion. The previous five took place between 1989 and 1995, when Milan were the dominant force, with the most glamorous faces in football. The Dutch trio of Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard provided spectacular embellishment to a prized Italian defence known as 'Franco Baresi and the Untouchables'. Alongside the legendary sweeper, the blockade consisted of two emerging young stars, Maldini and his great friend Billy Costacurta, and the no-nonsense right-back Mauro Tassotti. Today, Baresi coaches Milan's youngsters and Tassotti is assistant manager. Heaven knows what private thoughts the old survivors Maldini and Costacurta will share as they aim for another European Cup, all these years on.

Costacurta, in particular, must wonder quite how this has happened considering he was released by Milan last summer. He was doing the tourist routine in New York with his actress and former Miss Italia girlfriend last September when the club called to say they needed him back. Rumour has it that in the early part of the season, captain Maldini looked around the dressing room and felt they were missing some of the old guard's spirit and resolve. Next thing Costacurta's phone was buzzing.

The contrast between these two long-term pillars of the Milan and Italy defence is an intriguing one. Costacurta, when the time comes to reflect upon his own eventful career, has been by Maldini's side for most of it and has a similarly bulging collection of prizes. And yet Costacurta, neither as charismatic nor as brilliant, is forever in his shadow. It doesn't seem to have grated too much. As he admits: 'I always have to work really hard, whereas Paolo just has so much natural talent.'

It was always so. Maldini made his debut for Milan at 16, a graduate from the youth team overseen by his father, Cesare. Did he benefit from nepotism?

'No, quite the opposite. He was much harder on me than the others,' Maldini recalls. That famously cool temperament was necessary when he had to live up to the enormous expectations that came with being Cesare Maldini's boy. Papa was the strong, elegant sweeper with a big personality who captained Milan to their first European Cup triumph in 1963. Papa also went on to manage the Italy side Paolo played in. If it felt odd he didn't show it. He ended up with 126 caps (112 more than Papa).

Says Cesare: 'I have never given him any advice. He doesn't need it; he always seems to know what to do. He still surprises me every day with his quest to always improve and to look inside as well. What makes me proud about Paolo? The way he behaves on and off the pitch and the fact that he has always played with Milan.'

One-club Paolo even took a 30 per cent pay cut this year - 'for the love of Milan' - to sign an extension until 2005. That will take him to the twentieth anniversary of his debut. 'It's a very good thing for football when a player comes through the ranks and stays with a club,' he says. 'The fans can identify with that sort of player.'

Remarkably, when he began in 1985 against Udinese, Milan were close to bankruptcy and it took the intervention of a media magnate and supporter by the name of Silvio Berlusconi to rescue the club with a £20 million investment.

How long can Maldini continue? By and large he has had an excellent season, the effects of his international retirement evident in his club form. Inevitably, at 34 there are momentary lapses, particularly against the fleet of foot. In the Champions League semi-final, he was exposed by Inter's speedy Obafemi Martins, in a way that recalled Ahn Jung Hwan's killer blow for South Korea that made Maldini suddenly look old - sadly - as he departed the World Cup stage.

Fortunately for Milan, Martins' intervention was only a minor inconvenience. Maldini celebrated reaching the final by embracing all of his team-mates, shaking a knowing fist at the Tribune of Honour where Berlusconi sits, and sprinting off the pitch full of beans. It was a striking contrast to two years before, when he strode off solemnly as Italian clubs completed their collective collapse in European football. How proud he is that they - and he - are back.

Coming into May, he had played more minutes of football for Milan than any other player. He has been invigorated by two things: dedicating his efforts to his club, and the arrival of the exceptional, graceful stopper Alessandro Nesta alongside him. There was a poignant moment during the semi-final against Inter that personified the passing of the defensive baton through the generations. Just above Maldini's head a fan waved a giant flag that said, simply, 'Baresi'. At that point, Maldini passed the ball to Nesta, who looked every inch the Milan cornerstone for the years to come. Having struggled to settle in the early days since his transfer from Lazio, Nesta now looks the part. 'To play next to Maldini is very easy,' he says. 'He is 34 years old now, but plays at the very highest level game after game.'

He does it naturally. So it was the best left-back in the world turned into one of the most accomplished central defenders - effortlessly. Maldini's impact on the next generation is huge. The ex-Rangers midfielder Gennaro Gattuso, in terrific form as the team's energetic ball-winner, is grateful for what he has learnt: 'When I am tired or when I don't fancy training I think about Maldini and Costacurta and that is all I need to rediscover my desire to play football. Paolo has been extremely important for me and my career. He is an example and I have watched him. He doesn't talk that much, it might just be four words in an entire season, but those four words shake you up.'

And so the legend continues. Cesare will be watching in Manchester to see if his son can emulate his feat of 40 years ago, a European triumph that occurred, so the Milan soothsayers like to remind you, on English soil. 'He hasn't finished yet,' says Cesare of Paolo. 'He will continue to surprise you.'

Cheers.

KONDR · 2 марта 2005

This article is composed of extracts from a very long article intitled: From Sacchi to Zeman, Capello and Lippi to arrive at Descartes and Kant. It seems interesting to me that the extracts regarding Arrigo Sacchi that I personally consider as a coach whom has marked, through AC Milan, a turning point in the history of European and Italian tactical aspects of football. I believe that Arrigo Sacchi is undisputable, or at least in the same manner as Kant and Sigmund Freud. They may have said some true things and other less verifiable ones, but the important thing is that it is not questionable that they have influenced so profoundly their own discipline to the point of becoming a constant point of reference. Sacchi has obtained exceptional results. We all know what he has won with Milan.

However, not many know that he has won right away during his first season as a coach the amateur league title with Fusignano. He won the Primavera league with Cesena with a record of 26 wins out of 32 and 5 ties, scoring 82 goals and conceding only 10. Then why is he so much questioned? I believe there are various reasons. First of all because he has been an innovator. On paper, we are all for progress, but in reality, Man is naturally conservator. Changes are risky and everything that’s not part of our habits is a danger. We only like what we are comfortable with and what we already know. From football, we demand even more so certitudes. Being one of our points of reference as we attribute an important part of our daily lives, we expect and demand from it certitudes. Sacchi has reversed our manner of living and seeing football. It has not been easy to follow him. He is posing a problem which is very practical and almost always underestimated. Playing the prophets in the era of instant global information is very difficult.

The History of Sacchi

Sacchi is a romagnolo from Fusignano, a city close to Ravenna. He has studied accounting and he plays football. His father is wealthy as he has a small shoe factory. Arrigo grows up in the middle of the perfumes of the province. He is natural and dry, he wants right away his Porsche, he is torn between the demands of changing the world and to enjoy the easy life thanks to the wealth of his father. He chooses the latter and works for his father in his factory. He stops playing football without football noticing it. He falls in love with the Dutch ways.

Then one day, he decides to leave and and goes around Europe meticulously and carefully studying the football of the others. He is particularly interested in the teaching of football to the youth. Sacchi believes that football starts from there. At the age of fourteen, a boy learns everything. He would know how to play in zone, the offside rule, pressing, diagonal, everything as he has a free spirit. At the age of 25 the boy becomes what he has learned. When he comes back from his Europe tour, he knows what is duty in life is. Sacchi remains profoundly convinced that the international experiences contribute a lot in forming a young footballer. When he trains the Cesena Primavera, he wants the club to send as much as possible the team to play tournaments abroad. And this team grows as a small chef d’oeuvre, balanced and mature. These boys win the league and they would all end up playing in Serie B and A.

His idea is that the man is more important and counts more than the player. In the sense that if a footballer is not a serious man, he would never be a good footballer. Serious means being humble, being always ready to learn, to make sacrifices, to respect the fatigue to the point of understanding its necessity and key role in his system; to play for the others rather for oneself; to understand that if a partner doesn’t help, he won’t be helped and if he doesn’t help the team won’t exist. There’s finally an entire evangil of Sacchi which is at the base of his working methods. Translated onto the field, his thought means two training sessions a day, sometimes three, in a world where one doesn’t go beyond 3 training sessions per week plus the friendly match on Thursdays.

That means a strict regime, a continuous study of one’s and the opponents’ movements; it means continuous discussion about one’s own limits, about being dust and about the infinite predisposition to become it. It means to totally immerse oneself into the philosophy of football and finally, to dive into the tunnel of excessive and unknown professionalism. When he arrives at Milan, he is a young technician of 41 years old who has never set foot in Serie A. Silvio Berlusconi welcomes him royally at Milan and surrounds him of grandeur. Sacchi defends himself with his hunger of glory, his evangil of work ethics of his region. He has spiritual eyes and a fixed smile. As Brera (great Italian journalis/writer of the 70s to 1990, Interista) writes, he often seems in direct conjonction and contact with God. His players are not listening to him. To Franco Baresi, he shows footage of Signorini, the Parma libero in Serie B.

He is not understood, he is underestimated, then when the team loses a few games, a certain incredulity and scepticism comes as well. He feels faced with a duty bigger than him. After all, who is he? That’s the question most people are wondering in Milano, and worst of all, inside the dressing rooms. Thus, one day, he takes all the players apart, closes the doors of Milanello and yells that he is ready to go back to Fusignano but that they (the players) have not won anything and that they will not win anything. No one really knows whether it was his frank and direct way of talking or his charisma, but the fact is that all the Milan players come out of this meeting extremely pumped up. Berlusconi respects him and starts to believe in him again. And when the team goes to play a crucial game away to Verona, also crucial for Sacchi, the president stands at the doors of the dressing rooms and repeats convincingly to each and everyone of the players the same thing: “Between Sacchi and the team, I choose Sacchi”. The message is clear and goes well. Milan wins. And would not stop for a very long time. And this says it all on the fact that to have a great team, it is indispensable to have a great club.

Discussion on the methods of Sacchi

Sacchi doesn’t invent a new football but a new manner to play football. He plays zonal on the natural basis of the 4-4-2. He presses the opponents in their own half by holding his defence at the level of the half line. Attacking this Milan during that time was difficult. Rare were the teams which succeeded. The team is very compact, tight and close with only one forward (Virdis) and a lot of versatile players (Donadoni, Evani, Gullit and Ancelotti.

On the right wing, Tassotti and Colombo take care of the marking and help each other and take turns in crossing; on the left wing, the young Maldini and Evani do the same. Baresi plays in line with the defenders and orchestrate the off-side. However what is spectacular in the Sacchi method is the capacity of playing in a collective manner. In general, the collective play doesn’t distinguish itself on the fact that the ball circulated and moves around between all the players of the team but rather of their total movement. In order to have a good coherent play, the players of the team have to move all together and in the same direction that the ball is going. It is not easy to do that. You will often see 5 or 6 players moving but not all. This means that there is no harmony, that that there’s a technical or physical difficulty.

Sacchi’s Milan, when it was moving, looked like the migration of a people. The players move up and down not only together but by staying at the same distance of each other, a metre away from each other. It is quite difficult to play against such a machine, so developed and well oiled. Numerous were the games were Galli, the goal keeper did not touch the ball. Milan win all their matches at home and without losing away and conceding only 14 goals in the whole season. The team is lacking a great deep playmaker, like a Rijkaard whom would join the following year. Ancelotti does not have the calibre to fill that role, he does his job well and can do the playmaking job well when needed but it is not his best position. Berlusconi says that Milan does have a chef d’orchestre, but he doesn’t know the music and tune.

Stay tuned for the remainder of the article to be posted soon...

Part II of this superb article!

Enjoy!

He is right. But Ancelotti would soon find the right rhythms. It was I believe the best Milan of Sacchi, the most obvious example of a different football, also because, it was the least perfect Milan of the 10 years in which it would dominate the world. Sacchi is not only worth mentioning for his tactical or technical solutions. His diversity and originality remain in his method of working, his greatest contribution to football lays on his culture of engagement that he has introduced. He has always had a discreet fanatism for his theories and the need to challenge and to provocate. His entire history and legacy in football is a provocation. And he is he first Italian technician to have succeeded in Serie A, without having a background of a player. Liehdolm innovated using the methods inside his head due to his memories as a player, Sacchi had to invent.

The Man or the Scheme?

As all the fundamentalists, Sacchi has few doubts and he is very rigid. Whatever change that is proposed or suggested to him, he sees it as an attempt to work less. He would get rid of any player who would not be enthusiastic with his methods. Van Basten, one of the all time greatest forwards often asks him: “Mister, why are you treating me like the rest?” And Sacchi answers him: “Because you are intelligent and you would not ant a different treatment.” Indeed, Van Basten is one of the most worried under the weight of the pressure. He finds himself often substituted. He then asks: “Mister, why?”. “Because you were playing bad.” .”Yes, but the others were also playing bad.” “Yes, but the others were trying with application.” Generally, Sacchi is very demanding with his players, probably too much. Paolo Maldini writes in his book, Il Calcio (Sperling and Kupfer edition, 1996), “that the Sacchi tactic was very tiring and exhausting. After a few years, we could not continue at these rhythms”. Sacchi wanted to take the pressure all the way to the penalty box of the opposition. We would feel an enormous fatigue as a result of this tactic. A lot of players of great quality would suffer from it and dread it, others would have to adapt to the tactical demands of the Sacchiano scheme. This would create a legend and an equivoque. The legend being that Sacchi always adapts his men to his scheme and never the scheme to his men at his disposal. The equivoque being this very same legend.

In reality, his football and the zone that he generates give a big importance in a general manner to each player and to their imagination, but always with the scheme in mind. In a few words, a left wing back, on his zone, can do everything that he wishes. He cannot do it in another part of the field. It is not a principle which limits the imagination. It’s a principle which limits anarchy. A player has to follow his own instinct, but the instinct cannot be an ideology or a tactic. The truth lies somewhere in between. It is the men who make the success of a scheme, but a scheme must be for everyone. Football is not a game that we can follow only with our instinct because it is played with 11 individuals, that is with 11 instincts. One cannot progress without the triumph of the imagination; one progresses without the auto-limitating confusion. It is clear that if you have Maradona on your team, you let him decide to whom he should give the ball in the last 20 metres. There is no scheme where you limit such a player. And should there be one, it would simply be an incorrect scheme. To be there, at such a moment, even Maradona would need to be in movement (therefore fit and well trained), in the middle of the team in movement. It is important fantasy in football is put in the service of who has less of it…If we following the imagination, we would need to go alone for the goal and it’s never easy. This is taking the highest risk with a little profit. Which would be a mistake.

The integrism of Zeman

I believe that the schematism of Sacchi has been at least equal to the schematism of those who have wanted to judge him. There is no doubt that in today’s football, some technicians have ended up being really more advanced because they are extremely schematical Zdenek Zeman is the master of the second big fundamentalist wave. Zeman is the most integrist. For ever, he faces the same values and limitations, but he doesn’t change…It is certain that Zeman, even more than Sacchi doesn’t distinguish between player and player. As much as Sacchi was talkative, as much Zeman is silent and mysterious. Daniele Adani, a defender from Correggio, a starter for Brescia who was for when he was 20, for 4 months at Lazio under Zeman tells that he has never heard a word from his coach towards his person in 4 months. When he found the courage to inform him of an offer from another club, Zeman told him that being young and talented, that he should accept the offer. Generally, Zeman opts for a total integrism. He believes in a logical football which can only be one. In order to apply it, the players need to be very very fit and well trained. Not making any difference between the players. They all must do the same things both as far as the preparation than the execution are concerned. Whether they are tall or short, heavy or thin. I don’t know whether this is an advantage, but I have my doubts. Up until today, this type of football taken to the extreme had had excellent results as far as the construction phase of a project is concerned, without however, winning anything. It is often a spectacular method, and there is no doubt that Zeman is an excellent producer of football…

The limits of the “Sacchism”.

The limits of the “Sacchism” are that every coach is not Sacchi. Being Sacchi means to be a coach who coaches a lot, who studies a lot, who demands a lot. A 360 degrees engagement and commitment that no other coach has ever demonstrated. Sven Goran Eriksson, for example, who’s one of the oldest and most respected in Europe (despite being 50 years old, he has won titles in Sweden, in Italy and in Portugal), doesn’t do the work of Sacchi. Eriksson is more coach than technician. Same for Fabio Capello. I don’t believe that this means one is better or worst, it simply means something else. Eriksson lives with his players, he is rigorous technically speaking; he doesn’t pretend to be teaching and lecturing from an existential point of view. To live and let live. And he authorizes discussion. When he arrived in Italy, 15 years ago, Eriksson played exclusively with an integral 4-4-2 elaborated in Sweden from an obvious English inspiration. Then, he moved onto a 3-5-2 with Sampdoria, then 4-3-3 in the first part of his reign at Lazio to come back to a 4-4-2. A “Sacchista” would have never done it.

You would never see Zeman put a defender instead of a midfielder or vice-versa. A wing player replaces another wing player; a central midfielder with a central midfielder and so forth. They can change players, but not their scheme. This is for some, a limitation. For Zeman, it is a force. It is clear that a certain rigidity brings with it, its fair share of clash with players with strong personalities. Players that believe not to be nor too right nor to appropriate to give their best during trainings; players who need lots of motivation before and during a match. Finally, it is clear that football just like life is made of individuals, each with their own particularities and traits. Managing men means knowing them and keeping in mind what we know about each of them. Being tough, demanding with this type of player, is it always just? Above all, is he always in agreement with the interests of the club? Alen Boksic, when he was playing with Zeman at Lazio, was always injured and unhappy. The same Zeman was not hiding his desire to get rid of him. Same thing for Van Basten, Baggio and Panucci with Sacchi. Or for Romario and Ortega with Ranieri. And there are countless other similar examples…

Part III is next...stay tuned...

Differences between zonal tactics since Sacchi

Playing the zone is now very little indication of the behaviour of a team. A lot of teams now play with the zone. The problem and difference is how and what kind of zone. Capello’s zone is not Sacchi’s and even less Zeman’s. But it is not Malesani’s either, which in itself is different than all the others. Lippi has his own manner to play the zone, with a lot of aggressivity and attention, almost an Italian way of the zone system, with fixed and focused marking and the capacity to change system during a match. What differentiates one type of zone from another one? From a general point of view, it has to do with the manner to press and to apply the offside trap. One can apply pressing at about the half way line, at about ¾ of the field or close to the opposition’s penalty box. Pressings are defined “high”, “median” or “low” based on how far it is applied from the penalty box of the opposition.

The more it is applied inside the opposition’s half, the more the pressing is “high”. Of course, this type of pressing is a lot more demanding and tiring and requires more energy as it means that the whole team is required to apply it regularly. Every player does their best not to concede a goal by preventing the opposition from entering into their own half. On the other hand, if the defence is positioned on the half way line, going beyond that line without ending up offside is very difficult for the opposition. What this boils down to is to completely asphyxiate the opponents physically inside their own half by pressing them as soon as they have the ball. This type of zone is highly suggestive and almost impossible. This was the zone of the first years of Sacchi. But it is nowadays only a romantic expression and souvenir. Impossible to achieve that type of a zone but only for a few minutes in a match.

A more human and realizable zone is Fabio Capello’s zone. The “we must absolutely do it” of Capello took place of the exhaustion of Sacchi. The team was no longer able to stand nor manage the physical demands and workload of this Sacchiano system. Capello made a lower pressing and transformed it into a type of forcing. What’s the difference between the two types of zone? Simple. The simultaneous pressing and attacking of 2 or 3 players on the carrier of the ball. If you attack the opponent who has the ball with one man, it is called forcing. The difference is considerable and it implies a game plan and model almost entirely different. Pressing man by another man is normal. The forcing is when everyone presses with aggressivity their designated opponent. Pressing the opponent who has the ball with 2 or 3 players means being in numerical inferiority somewhere else on the field, meaning that if 3 men are on this zone of the field, these men will not be on at least 2 other zones. And the numerical superiority is at the base of the goal.

If you analyse carefully each goal, you would find that the direct or indirect cause of it to be a moment of numerical superiority. This means that if the pressing is successful, you get the ball back and start a collective counter attack. If the opponent manages to pass the ball to a partner, this means that the pressing must move towards the zone where the ball is now, but because of that, the equilibrium of the game is not respected anymore. And if the opponent manages to free from the pressing, the team is immediately in great difficulty since in an obvious numerical inferiority. This necessity of not being in danger makes it imperative to use to foul, each time that a team is collectively in danger and the pressing is eliminated. This is the famous tactical foul that we see at least 30 times per game.

Football by Descartes and Kant.

Football is in everything, an inexact science, but more and more true and profound. If today, we had a Descartes who was looking for a mathematical certitude, not on the existence of football, but on its correct application, he would maybe find it in the defence of spaces, true problem with which whatever scheme must be compared with. “I play, therefore, I cover” (”Je joue, donc je couvre”, letting others to chose the manner to cover. But while trying to answer at the question of the scientific character of football, I believe that at this point, Kant would also give an affirmative answer. Based on his criterias, football is science since it can be based on synthetic judgements a priori like mathematics and physics. If I say “this football is based on the exact covering of spaces”, I am indeed giving a synthetic judgement because I am adding something to the sentence (“this football”), and a judgement which is a priori based upon the pure intuition of space.

Football is a finally science on all accounts. Science of the rest is not truth but a continuous research of truth. And as all the sciences, football also often gives inexact results. (…). The greatness of football remains in its imperfection, as it is also ours. Football is like us, it answers at our demands. It is not by luck that these schemes have always followed our social evolutions. If football, the Italian way was the football of after war of a beaten nation condemned to manage on its own, the total football of the Dutch has been the football of a new humanism. And the football of Sacchi has presented the a mirror world, in its surety and in the arrogance of a Reagan, in the victory and the amusement and entertainment of the strong. Like a flashback to a prudence of principle, to a less emotive choice, more complex and thought, corresponding to a football of the 1990’s and 2000’s, a bit sacred a bit realistic, but a bit lacking strong illusions, but decided to go on. Toward the future.

FORZA SACCHI!!!

KONDR · 2 марта 2005

This one is from last May (Scudetto #17)

This evening in Milano's Castello Sforzesco, "dressed in Red&Black, 1050 guests have celebrated A.C. Milan's 17th Scudetto The stage was enriched by all the trophies won by our team in the last 12 month (CL, Coppa Italia, European Super Cup, Scudetto). The event was televised on Sky. Extensive interviews were given players, staff members and personalities. After a brief opening by the host of the evening, Silvio Berlusconi gave a speech :

In thanking you all far the warm welcome, I would like myself to thank all the people that have contributed to Milan's 17th title My first thank you will be for our tifosi that have been ever so close to us troughout the season. A warm thank goes to the press that have spoken so well of us, (pause) not always. To all our (Milan) employees, from the switchboard ladies to the warehousemen, from our techical staff to our fantastic medical staff, that have allowed us to have been the team with the fewest "long term injury problems" in the league. Thank you also to all "I ragazzi" (the players), in the end part of the merit is even a little bit their's Thank you to Carletto Ancelotti, even though he always "robs" me the job as trainer. Thank you to Mrs Ancelotti for putting up with his frustration. A very special thank you to a man that has made most of our acievements possible, a man for whitch I feel brotherly love, a crystal clear man, sweet honest, competent, his name is Adriano Galliani.

You see, we are here to party for all the successes of these last few months, a few are missing This year to tell you the truth I had in mind a few others But, even thogh we have lost a few Cups down the road, it's all experience that should help us from now, onwards so I'm booking right now next years Scudetto and next years Champios League (massive applause). I would also like to book next years Coppa Del Nonno (The Trofeo Berlusconi, in memory of his father), that every year we leave to Juve, how the hell do we do that.

One thing that bothers me however exists, their's a law in Parliament awaiting approval, that if approved, would stripe me of the previlege of being Milan's chairman, cause Milan is a public company with shares, and this law prohibits owners of public companies to enter politics. Hey Adriano (Galliani), if this happens we'll transform Milan in a brotherhood Anyway, to you all, I have the intention of staying Now, I wanted to approve a law that would allow us to skip the number 17 (17 in Italy is bad luck, like 13 in U.K and U.S.A.) and go directly to 18, it wasn't possible So we have come to an agreement with Carletto and all the boys, to reech Scudetto #20 as soon as possible, cause we are a Grand team and want to honour a great city La Grande Milano We are good at winning and convincing, hey Adriano; do you remember 18 years ago when we started, when we changed everything, from the teams diet to the way the team should play. Do tou remember how all the press used to criticize us. You all must know that before that time it was common for a Italian team to play away matches in defence, with one striker only and hope in God. One day, back in 1986, Adriano and me gathered whole team in a Castle near Pomerio and spoke out our mission:We must be protagonists in Italy, in Europe and the World We must enter the field, and become "owners" of it, we must impose our gameplan to the opposition and not enable the opposions "chemisty", react in a way that might affect us. Our mission was to win in Italy and Internationally, we swore to each other that we would not stop till we would become the club that had the most number of International trophies. We've achieved that Our Milan has gone through cycles, we've had the first Milan, the Milan of Sacchi. I remember when we signed him from Parma, all the press was questioning us, with remarks such as: He's a unknown trainer, from a small town, he will not be able to face all the superstars in the team, he will not be able to face all the pressure of a big city like Milano, the press will eat him alive", you all know how it went. Then came Capello, that was already working for us as a manager in Mediolanum, all the press said "You see, he put his employee, his lacchè", everytime we've made a choice always the same till our last choice Carletto, looked upon as a loser. Well thanks to our choices we've built three Cycles here. With this team we hope to still fullfill that commitment. We must win respecting the opposition, we must win respecting fans. We must play, knowing that the team is not a blend of single identities with their names on the jersey, it's even that, but most importantly, for all of you that still believe in the magic of the green pitch, you are one of them, fighting together for the same goal, helping each other out, winning etc. So all the players become an "example", a paradigm of all the vitues that we would love to hold inside us, and would love to use in our day to day life; in football these virtues are goals and winning; in our lifes thay may be completely different. I think that Fooball is fullfilling for this reason, everybody can "play" it, it's really a metaphor of life, it's the metaphor of the struggle in life

In these last 18 years, this team has been all this, particurlary for Milan supporters

I would like to thank our Sindaco (Mayor), Sindaco Albertini, for allowing us to gather here in the Castello Sforzesco, reconizing to us that our History is important also to the History of our beloved Milano

My desire is that our Milan, will be always succesful as today, a Milan that will always makes us dream, that will achieve goals, no matter how hard they will be. Cause if you are not ambitious, most of the times you will not achieve much, like in most fields, you must think big. Now even after 18 years we are still full of ambition, we still feel young in our commitment To still lead, our forever in love Milan, to success in Italy, in Europe, in the World The dream must go on like today the players know it already, they are us they are the holders of our dreams of success they must dream, make us and the millions of supporters we have not only in Italy but throughout the world dream, as always

They, we, are holders of the real popular feeling of this wonderful city, the real Milano, the elite Milano we'll leave it to Inter, they are good at that (massive applause).

So finally, Forza Vecchio Magico Milan The team we love so much For now thank you, cause we know that the best is yet to come

Forza Milan

I posted the following at Milanmania after the loss against Boca in the Intercontinental Cup.

I've decided to post this article at XT (after some minor editing) and hopefully it's good reading for the fellow Milanisti at XT. For those who have already read this at Milanmania, well just accept this as a welcome message from me.

Sacchi's Milan

-------------------------------------------------------------------------

After watching yesterday Toyota Cup match against Boca, I can't help but wonder if Sacchi's Milan is really the BEST Milan side ever, in European and Intercontinental context that is. The following is my assessment of the Milan sides to have won the European Cup (or Champion's League as it is known now) under Sacchi, Capello and Ancelotti (Managers under Berlusconi's era as President).

The Sacchi Era

===========

Sacchi's Milan was a perfect 6 out of 6 in Europe and Intercontinental matches, despite having only 1 scudetto in their showcase in terms of domestic honours. Ok, that team could have easily added another scudetto in 1990 if not for a coin toss & a fake injury (Alemao says hi!), a blind referee and 3 (YES! THREE!! It's 4 if you include Sacchi's expulsion) red cards for Costacurta, Rijkaard and Van Basten in the 2nd last Serie A game against Verona. Milan lost 2-1 in that match after playing 8 against 14 and basically handed the scudetto to Napoli. So much for consipiracy theories.

Considering the quality of the oppositions then (Maradona & Careca's Napoli, Matthaeus & Zenga's Inter, Vialli & Mancini's Sampdoria, Baggio's Fiorentina, Giannini & Voeller's Roma... Hey where was Juventus then? ), and given the fact that Italian teams were dominating in ALL European competitions, a top 3 finish every season in Serie A during Sacchi's era is a remarkable achievement. What made it more impressive was that Sacchi never had the luxury of a large squad that Capello and Ancelotti enjoyed today.

It was in Europe and Intercontinental matches that Milan simply brushed aside every team in their way, most notably a 5-0 whipping over Butragueño's "La Quinta del Buitre" (The Vulture Squadran) Real Madrid team (the very same team which had won 5 successive La Liga titles from 1986 to 1990) and a 4-0 drubbing of Steaua Bucherest (the nucleus of the Romanian national team with promising "youngsters" like Hagi, Petrescu, Lacatus...) in the European Cup final.

The European Cup win in 1989 was followed by victories in the European Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup that year. Sacchi's Milan then repeated the hat-trick of the European Cup, the European Super Cup and the Intercontinental Cup the following year for a PERFECT 6 out of 6 in Euro-Intercontinental matches!!!!!!

Sacchi's Milan (6 out of 6 in continental titles - 100%)

-------------------------G.Galli----------------------------

--Tassotti-----Baresi-----F.Galli/Costacurta----Maldini------

--Donadoni----Rijkaard----Ancelotti----Evani/Colombo-------

-----------Gullit/Massaro------Van Basten/Virdis------------

The Capello Era

===========

Capello's record for Milan in Euro-Intercontinental matches is a somewhat disappointing 2 out of 6. Under Capello, Milan became "Juventus"! Dominant in Serie A but screwing up in major continental finals, most notably the 1993 and 1995 Champions League (as it has been known since) finals to Marseille and Ajax respectively. Milan reached the finals of the Champion's League in 3 successive years, only to lose in 93 and 95 after having being the more dominant team in both finals! A 4-0 thrashing over a Romario-led Dream Team Barcelona sandwiched between the 2 losing finals brought some cheers to the tifosi. But given the sheer quality of that Milan team, the tifosi expected much better results, certainly better than 1 out of 3! And I won't mention about the Intercontinental matches against Sao Paulo and Velez Sarsfield. (Billy Costacurta can certainly remember those 2 games better than I do ). A European Super Cup win against Arsenal in 94/95 brought home only the 2nd continental trophy under Capello in 6 intercontinental finals.

In Serie A, Capello's Milan won 4 scudetti in 5 seasons, including finishing the 91-92 season UNDEFEATED (a feat still unmatched todate!), and also setting a Serie A record of a 58 games unbeaten run! For all Capello's honours (mostly domestically), I have to admit though I do respect him as a coach, I'm not exactly his biggest fan. Milan are GREAT due to their continental successes, and not being a dominant Serie A team....... It's only in winning in Europe which makes a club a legendary side.

Capello's Milan (2 out of 6 - 33%)

---------------------------Rossi---------------------------

--Tassotti/Panucci-----Baresi-----Costacurta----Maldini----

----Donadoni/Lentini-----Albertini-----Rijkaard/Desailly------

--------------------Savicevic/Boban-----------------------

-----Gullit/Massaro/Simone----Van Basten/Papin/Weah------

Ancelotti's Milan

============

Honestly speaking, Carletto's Milan is not at the level (yet) of their predecessors during the Sacchi and Capello era. After winning the Champion's League on penalties against rivals Juventus, and the European Super Cup against Porto in August, Ancelotti's team was on the verge of a clean sweep of intercontinental titles with Argentina's Boca Juniors in their way for the of a intercontinental hat-trick. Sadly for all Rossoneri worldwide, lady luck was not on Milan's side this time round in the PK shootout as Milan ended up losing the final 1-3 on penalties. Carletto's record for Milan in continental finals (at present) is 2 out of 3.

Given the current quality of the squad, I am quite confident and optimisstic that we will not be seeing the last of domestic and continental honours from this Milan team. A future trip back to Yokohama in the near future seems possible, though Carletto can no longer boost a PERFECT record now having lost 1 continental final.

(Note: Ancelotti's Milan won the 17th Scudetto after I've written this)

Ancelotti's Milan (2 out of 3 - 67%)

-----------------------Dida--------------------------------

----Cafu/Simic-----Nesta-----Maldini----Kaladze/Pancaro----

-------------------------Pirlo/Ambrosini---------------------

-----------Gattuso---------------Seedorf/Serginho----------

------------------------Kaka/Rui Costa----------------------

--------------Shevchenko--------Inzaghi/Tommason---------

In short: Sacchi's Milan - Perfection Personified!!!!!! Period

No Milan without Maldini

Friday, 19 November 2004

By Kevin Buckley

In January 1985, the teenage Paolo Maldini strode out on to the San Siro turf against Udinese Calcio and his life changed forever.

Meteoric rise

Three years after first brushing shoulders with the likes of granite-faced AC Milan team-mate Franco Baresi, the precocious newcomer was already slipping on the blue of Italy's national team shirt. Maldini would proudly wear that prestigious colour a record 126 times.

Famous father

Son of another Milan legend, Cesare Maldini, the defender was Milan's youngest ever debutant. He is now 36. Looking back at that debut he reminisced: "Just after reaching 16 I was straight into the first team. It was all so quick I never even had time to think about it, how it happened."

Point to prove

Reaching the top is one thing, but how on earth has 'il capitano' stayed there for so long? "It's a series of things," he said. "I was born in Milan. For a start, for a Milanese to play for Milan is an unusual thing. I had to show straight away that I wasn't here because of the surname."

Ups and downs

The ups and downs in his career are pretty well known. Winning European Champion Clubs' Cups and Scudettos galore, losing the FIFA World Cup on penalties and missing out on winning the UEFA European Championship in 2000 by 43 seconds.

Cool head

Hard man Baresi famously wept after Italy's 1994 World Cup final penalty shoot-out defeat by Brazil, but Maldini remained impassive. He said: "My character makes it almost easier for me to handle such negative emotions - in that I know I've given everything, so I can complain about the result, but not that I could have done more."

Milan passion

Neither triumph nor disaster seems to affect Maldini's appetite for the game or for work. Milan midfield player Gennaro Gattuso said: "After 20 years with Milan, at this level, he still has the same passion. Me, I envy him. You know, sometimes you don't want to go to training, you don't feel so good. Maybe you are tempted to invent a cold or a niggle or something. But Paolo? No, never. He is a true leader. Not by raising his voice or shouting at people. Off the pitch too, he never seems angry."

Domestic policy

Maldini's glacial calm on the training pitch extends into his home life, and the major reason for that is that he does not take his work home with him. "Once training is over, the match is finished, I think of my family, my things," he said. "It's a way of making things last longer. In my opinion if you go home and you only think of football it consumes you much more quickly."

Pampered professionals

However, that is not to say that he resents the life of a footballer. "We are truly pampered," he said at Milan's Milanello training ground. "They do everything to make us feel well. It's almost as though all your worries stop at the gates. This is the ideal manner to get the best out of you."

Striking ambitions

The only tiny regret that gnaws at Maldini is that he did not persevere in his initial position as an attacker. "Yes, I started as attacker on the right," he said. "But how can I really be disappointed when I've had such a career... It would be absurd."

KONDR · 2 марта 2005

"Forza Maldini" - the long & interesting interview from UEFA <<Champion>>'s magazine. Many thanks to Claudia & her friend, Gem who took her time typing the whole interview for us to share.

FORZA MALDINI

By Kevin Buckley

Paolo Maldini, the best defender of our times, is immense on the pitch and rarely heard off it. Yet talking to Kevin Buckley for Champions, he seizes the chance to do what he calls "a different kind of interview", revealing the insults he suffered growing up in the family business, the last time football made him cry and his perfect pizza.

In 1984 Michel Platini won the European Championship with France, Kaka was just two years old, and Bob Geldof had never even thought of Live Aid. Meanwhile in northern Italy, a carefree 15-year-old schoolboy with a shock of thick, dark hair was doing what thousands of other Milanese teenagers did, riding the metro with his school rucksack, going for a pizza, and shopping at Esselunga supermarket.

In January 1985, that teenager strode out onto the San Siro turf against Udinese and his life changed forever. Three years after first brushing shoulders with the likes of granite-faced Milan teammate Franco Baresi, the precocious newcomer was already slipping on the irresistible blue of Italy's national team shirt. Paolo Maldini would proudly wear that prestigious color a record 126 times, gaining more caps than even his old tutor, Baresi, as well as lifting the very highest club honors in the red and black of Milan.

That Milanese teenager is now a 36 year-old father of two. Looking back at that debut he reminisces: "At 15 I had a normal life. Suddenly, I went from Esselunga to the San Siro!" He laughs. "Just after reaching 16 I was straight into the first team. It was all so quick I never even had time to think about it, how...it happened.

It is a muggy autumn afternoon not far from the Swiss border. Faint sunshine struggles through an overcast sky at Milanello, AC Milan's inner sanctum. Here players train, eat, often sleep, protected from the outside world behind electronic gates and uniformed armed guards. Maldini relaxes on the dark wooden bench overlooking the gentle hillside sloping down from the players' living quarters. The lank dark hair is freshly cropped, shorter than of late. The languid style suggests a lead singer between gigs, but the lean torso, tree-trunk thighs and three-inch horizontal scar just above the right knee say otherwise.

Reaching the top is one thing, but how on earth has 'il Capitano' stayed there for so long? "It's a series of things," he says with the modesty of those comfortable at the very top of their profession. "I was born in Milan. For a start, for a Milanese to play for Milan is an unusual thing."

Maldini has always lived in the city, his white stucco mansion on the west of Milan just a 15-minute drive from San Siro. "My father had had an important history with the club. I've won the Champions League, as captain, and my father too had won the European Cup, as captain. It's a story weaving inside the story. It's almost like a novel." But then again, in a work of fiction, such a plot would be rejected as implausible.

Having a famous football father was tough on the adolescent Maldini. "Oh yes, people's nastiness knows no bounds," he admits. "I'd always try to block my ears. I knew my father was a footballer but at ten years old I couldn't understand how big he had been. I used to play on the little pitches on the outskirts of Milan and I'd hear people insulting me, calling my father a s0-and-so Milanista."

Paolo was Milan's youngest ever debutant. "I had to show straight away that I wasn't here because of the surname," he says. Debuts for the Italian under-21's at 17 and the senior side at just 18 were firmly on merit. "They criticized my father when he called me up for the unde-21s. It was absurd, I was just 17 and took part with those born in 1963, 1964, when I was born in 1968. Sometimes the things they say aren't even very intelligent." In print, this might appear as if Maldini is having a rant, but after making his point he just laughs and waits for the next question.

He has been coached by his father Cesare at club and international level. Italian coaches are respectfully referred to as 'il Mister' -a result of the English influence on the Italian game's founding fathers - so when the Maldini career paths crossed, how did he address his father in training?” Papa. How could I call him 'Mister'? It's ridiculous," he says, dismissively. How do you handle having your father as coach? "By being fortunate enough to have a good relationship with your relationship with your father. But also by not being afraid of what we had to do." Early on, there was some "sense of embarrassment, mainly on my part," he concedes, but adds, "if they choose him as national team coach...and I am captain of the national team, reaching the World Cup, what should we be afraid of?"

Interestingly, family get together with father and son never revolved around football. "No, no," he says. "We rarely talked about football, especially at home. We'd had enough football." In our conversations, 'switching off' from football is a recurring theme. He applies the same policy of not mentioning the game at dinners in his house. This does at least ensure that, if things get merry at the Maldini family Christmas, there'll be no competitive sparring of the "how many European trophies have you got then?" variety.

He may play for passion rather than profit - "after 20 years I don't need to, financially" - but he is also the consummate company man, acutely aware of his role as the public face of one of the biggest brands in sport. The corporate antennae are rarely switched off and the flashing telegenic smile well practiced. But dealing with the media is not his favorite pastime. "I haven't read La Gazzetta (dello Sport) for about 15 years," he says. But as he warms to our conversation, something different to "the standard interview...when there is not really much to say," the characteristic, soft, staccato laugh becomes more genuine.

The ups and downs in his career are pretty well known. Winning European Cups and Scudettos galore, losing the World Cup on penalties, missing the European Championship by 43 seconds. But has football ever made him cry?

"Hmm," he says, turning away and looking into the distance. Five, long, silent seconds later he announces, "No, as a professional, no." Then he admits, "I did once. I was eight. My mum was furious!" he says. "Because I cried just because I'd lost."

Signora Maldini's scolding must have been withering. Her son's bottom lip never trembled again, even though Italy's hard man, Franco Baresi, famously wept after the 1994 World Cup final penalty shoot-out defeat to Brazil. "They're horrible moments for anyone. But my character makes it almost easier for me to handle such a negative emotion - in that I know I've given everything, so I can complain about the result, but not that I could have done more. It's as though it's harder for me to talk about a victory than it is a defeat."

Neither triumph nor disaster seems to affect Maldini's appetite for the game or for work. Milan's tireless midfielder Gennaro Gattuso, tipped as eventual heir to the captain's armband, says: "The thing that amazes me is when I see Paolo in training. After 20 years with Milan, at this level, he still has the same passion. Me, I envy him. You know, sometimes you don't want to go to training, you don't feel so good. Maybe you are tempted to invent a cold or a niggle or something. But Paolo? No, never. He is a true leader. Not by raising his voice or shouting at people. Off the pitch too, he never seems angry."

Maldini's on-field persona - the unsmiling arch competitor totally absorbed in his task - can easily appear arrogant. But in private he isn't. What he is, is a professional, aware of what he has achieved, proud of it, but always ready to credit his teammates and his club. "No, absolutely, he isn't arrogant," agrees friend Demetrio Albertini, a teammate for club and country, now at Atalanta. The adjective most frequently used is 'equilibrato'. Balanced. Not always easy to achieve in the frenetic world of Italian football. "It is his way of living," says Gattuso, simply.

Maldini says, "It depends a lot upon you yourself. I'm a household name despite myself. If it were up to me, off the pitch I wouldn't even be seen." Indeed, one-to-one interviews such as this are as rare as a Maldini red card - only three in a Serie A career approaching 550 appearances. "The two or three TV appearances that I've done, I did, I don't know, five years ago," he says. "Once training is over, the match is finished, I think of my family, my things."

He is married to Adriana, a Venezuelan former model, with whom he has two children, Christian, eight and three-year-old Daniel. "It's a way of making things last longer. In my opinion if you go home and you only think of football it consumes you much more quickly."

Handling the modern football lifestyle opens a discussion of the recent articles of Roma's troubled stars, Francesco Totti, banned for spitting at Euro 2004, and 'enfant terrible' Antonio Cassano, who has clashed with coaches and officials. "It's easier for a player - whoever - who is too pampered, who is allowed to do anything, to make mistakes. It's more likely he starts living outside reality, the whole environment," says Maldini, careful to underline the fact that he is speaking generally.

But don't the public and media exert intolerable pressure on a player? "No, it's not intolerable. There arrives a certain point in life where a player can't continue always being regarded as a lad of 18. For me, it's a question of responsibility. It's a question of growing up. I'm speaking of life, not just football."

From a Serie A diplomat like Maldini, this is as close as it gets to scathing criticism. "About Roma I'm speaking as an outsider. I've never experienced it personally. But it's very difficult there. I know players who've played there. Here for them it's paradise, not just in football, but also in life. Alessandro Nesta [who used to play at Lazio] couldn't go out to a restaurant because there's always be some Roma fan. He'd be with his girlfriend and they would insult him. Here in Milan, I can go to whichever restaurant, and it would never happen. It's not that Romans are less well-mannered," he says, "but in Rome, they live football in such an intense way that it's not good for a player. It's negative for everyone. They praise you up to the stars then perhaps afterward you can't even live your normal life."

So would he be happy if one of his sons went into professional football? "I would never push him into it. But if I were able to wish him a life as beautiful as mine, why not? I'd be mad to not want him to have a life like that." After 20 years as a footballer, he now welcomes "healthy stress", saying, "You grow up as a man and as a player."

Then he suddenly leaps up like a schoolboy startled by a school bell. "I've got to go to training. If I'm late, I'll be fined," he complains, "even if I am captain." He quickly disappears down the gravel pathway with that slightly jack-knifed-at-the-waist running style. Minutes later, three other millionaires screech into the car park. Carlo Ancelotti clearly doesn't mess about with those fines.

(Part I)

A few days later, when Milan's number three strolls over for more talk and some photographs, he announces dryly that he narrowly avoided a fine: "I made it by 30 seconds."

So if Milan is a city that lets its star players hang out in peace, when was the last time he rode the metro?

“In the last...let's see," he pauses, "in the last 18 years, no." He laughs as he carefully climbs onto a chair to pose for a photo amid jokes about "not falling off and hurting himself.“

Eighteen years?

"Yeah, when I still didn't have the motorbike license."

Which metro line?

"Line One," he shoots back right away, "going to training at Lotto with my school rucksack."

And when was the last time he went out for pizza and a beer?

"Beer, I don't like, but pizza yes," he says. "A lot," he adds guiltily, as though he fears one of the club's dieticians might be listening at the door. "Actually, I like going out for a trancio." (Thanks to our italian expert Diavolo for pointing out the mistake on original print with trancia.)

A trancia is the extra thick piping hot version of pizza sliced into tranches and often shared as a takeaway. So the captain of AC Milan likes the equivalent of deep-pan pizza? Many of his countrymen regard it as an absolute culinary abomination. He lists some of the places he frequents around town on his nocturnal escapades. I ask him if the staff are surprised when he walks in? “No, they are used to it by now."

Does he get discounts as a star player?

"No." Warming to the theme, il Capitano adds, "Sometimes, after an away match, I'll go with a friend and find any old pizzeria on the outskirts of Milano. Maybe we've played at Roma at half past eight, and at three [in the morning] I turn up there because I'm starving."

How does the staff react?

"They say, 'What at this time?" he laughs.

Demetrio Albertini confirms it. "Oh yes, Paolo and I would often go out in Milan for a beer and pizza. the city helps you a lot; Milan treats famous personalities in a normal way." Paolo keeps to his beloved soft drink, Coke. "He used to drink it all the time," laughs Albertini, "and he was always eating those soft-centered sweets. Me too."

But back to the football. Longevity is one thing, but how on earth does Maldini maintain the sheer quality of his play, when he's now in his 37th year? "I have - I can't say fortunately - but I've stopped playing for the national side so I have the chance to rest, and above all to train," he says, still standing patiently on top of the photographer's chair, waiting for the camera. If a member of the coaching staff had come in at this point, there would have been hell to pay.

When he quit the Azzurri after the 2002 World Cup there was speculation about ruptures with Italy's then coach Giovanni Trapattoni. In reality, he had told Trap of his intention to quit even before flying to Japan. The sight of Korean striker Ahn Jung Hwan ghosting in behind Maldini's desperately short, tired leap, to head in the golden goal that knocked Italy out of the competition, was an inglorious end to an illustrious international career. Last summer Trapattoni tried in vain to entice him back for Euro 2004 in Portugal. But Maldini was well out of it. An under-par Italy imploded amongst media spats, desperate conspiracy theories about Scandinavian match rigging and national embarrassment over Totti's spitting.

Maldini is not one of those Serie A veterans who is planning on an end-of-career jaunt in England's Premiership. With admirable personal honesty and professional pride, he admits fearing cutting a "brutta figura". A bad image. “No, it'd be tough in the Premier League," he says, leaning forward, speaking quietly and intently. "It'd be horrible, wouldn't it, going to a country at a point when you are on your way down, going to a country at a point when you are on your way down, going to a country where they know you as a top player."

Yet the continued quality of his performances owes much to the way Maldini plays the game. The second-tier press stand of the San Siro affords a wonderful view of his master class. He epitomizes the defender's art. No energy is wasted. Timing is everything. Many tackles and runs are avoided by the intelligent expedient of anticipation. He reads a game so well that those around him are often left floundering. Just as Maldini learnt from a master, Baresi, now Nesta is collecting pearls of defensive wisdom from Maldini.

Nesta, now 28, is less rash in the tackle as a Rossonero. When the twin pillars are working in harmony at the heart of Milan's defensive quartet, it is like watching a pair of imperious Parisian waiters gliding effortlessly around the tables clearing the debris of unruly diners. Alessandro Costacurta, to give him his due, often slides seamlessly back into his old partnership when called upon. So the influence of his family, his playing style and his ability to switch off entirely from Calcio are what provides Maldini's equilibrium.

He argues that staying focused is the least he can do. "There are negative things [about football]. But once I arrive here, a scene like this," he says, gesturing at the quiet, verdant splendor of Milanello, "there are 25 lads who have fun, they play football. They are paid well for doing it. We are truly pampered. they do everything to make us feel well. It's almost as though all your worries stop at the gates. This is the ideal manner to get the best out of you."

In the expert view of veteran Sandro Mazzola, 1960s star striker for city rivals Inter, "Paolo is the most complete defender there is. The difference between a good player and a truly great one, is being respected by your opponents, and he is."

One such adversary, Gianluca Vialli, formerly of Juventus and Italy, bears that out: "Paolo and I played against each other many times. There was never any quarter given. But I have to say he was always fair, correct, and a fearsome opponent. Playing for such a big team doesn't mean it's easier to stay at the top. On the contrary, it's more of an achievement because it's harder to keep your place."

Vialli says Maldini is "serene, calm - it comes from his family, his father, the family that Paolo has built himself. As a player he's won everything at club level. His achievements are almost unbelievable." Vialli admits that when he was managing Chelsea, he tried to do the unthinkable, to wrest Paolo Maldini from Milan. "The Capello era was finishing at Milan, Paolo's contract was ending. Five or six years ago, he was interested. I'd hoped to sign him and Marcel Desailly. Paolo likes the Anglo-Saxon atmosphere. But in the end he renewed with Milan. A pity. It would have been fun."

Mazzola recalls that the young Paolo started as a striker. "His dad Cesare was a great libero in front of the defense. So when I heard his son was appearing for Milan juniors, I went to see him. He was aged 12, he was the tallest so they put him up front." Maldini is 6ft 1in tall, although a slight stoop when standing or walking makes him look shorter.

He confirms, "Yes, I started as attacker on the right, then a midfielder on the right...then in defense, and debuted on the right. Then I improved my left foot with practice. It wasn't easy. I didn't know how to cross with the left."

Has he ever regretted not being a striker? "A little bit, yes," he concedes, starting to squirm slightly. "Maybe I would have been an average attacker, who knows." As a number three, he has netted 25 Serie A goals and just seven for the Azzurri. "Yes, but I've missed loads!" he laments, half seriously. "But how can I really be disappointed when I've had such a career...It would be absurd. But it's been useful for me. I wasn't born with the idea of being a defender, to just break up the attacking moves of the adversary."

Indeed, the indicator as to how comfortable Milan feel in any match is how much 'the world's most complete defender' allows the 'frustrated attacker' within to indulge in forward forays down the left flank. He is surprised at a mention of his crucial role in a Serie A goal against Livorno in September. The headlines dwelt exclusively on goal scorer Clarence Seedorf's spectacular quick one-two with Kaka, but the key to the goal was Maldini's clever, perfectly-weighted pass that had earlier released Kaka.

"They are the things that not everyone notices," he says. "But we, as a team, know the importance of that kind of pass. It's not the football of the 1970s or 1980s when you had more time to move. The further forward you are, the less time you have to release your team-mate, so the weighting of the ball is fundamental."

It's hard to imagine - for him and for us - what a player who has been dubbed the Michelangelo of the defensive arts will do when he stops playing. He has ruled out coaching. "For the past two or three years I've been thinking about what I'll do," he admits. "Sooner or later I'll have to get a proper job," he laughs. "I just can't see myself working in an office, doing fixed hours."

Meanwhile Diego Maradona, one of the players Maldini has admired most, thinks his old opponent should go into the movies. "He's a great footballer who chose the wrong profession. He should have been an actor - he's too pretty to play football."

As a loyal one-club man captaining his hometown team, Paolo Maldini has become something of a rarity. When he does finally call it a day, football will be immeasurably poorer. In the meantime, there's another Champions League to win for his beloved Rossoneri.

(End)

KONDR · 2 марта 2005

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