Franco Baresi was the 'Steel Man' of AC Milan's defence and the Italian national team for over two decades. He is the greatest Italian defender of all times even though some people may think different.
He started his career in AC Milan and he played only for The Devils.
He was born on the 8th of May 1960 in a place named Travagliato, near Brescia, in the Lombardy region of Italy.
He debuted in the Italian Serie A on the 23rd April 1978 in a match played against Verona away. Milan won that match with a 2-1 score.
He went with AC Milan from glory to failure and from failure to glory as he played for the 'rossoneri' in the two era's: one is the darkest period in the clubs history, when Milan played for the first time in Serie B for two years due to a betting scandal in which was involved the club president and some players (Baresi was not one of them); the other one is the best period of AC Milan, from 1988 to 1994.
He is also one of the players who was on the pitch for the most matches in Serie A (444, all for AC Milan), in which he scored 12 goals. (he also played for AC Milan in two seasons in Serie B in which he scored some goals, not counted here).
Silvio Berlusconi, AC Milan's club president wanted to retire himself when he heard that Baresi will retire. He left the parliamentary chambers to see Baresi's last match as a proffesional player in the red-and-blacks stripes shirt.
The last game played by Baresi for AC Milan was freindly with Capello and Sacchi on the training bench and with Van Basten and all the other players who formed the golden team of late 80's and early 90's. 50.000 people came to see Baresi's testimonial match that night. The game's landmark was Baresi goal in the end.
He is now working as a scout for AC Milan.
Trophies won:
::6 x Italian title
::3 x European Super Cup
::3 x European Cup
::2 x Intercontinental Cup
Friday, January 23, 2009
Franco Baresi
Gunnar Nordahl
Gunnar Nordahl was the most effective striker that ever played for AC Milan. His style of play was based on his enormous strength. Nordahl had another four brothers who also played football in the Swedish first division. He played in the Swedish first division at Degerfors and IFK Norkopping. His career landmarks during his time in the Swedish championship are the four championships titles won during the time he played for Norkopping and the seven goals scored against Landskrona in a championship match. He was first called to the Swedish national team in 1945. In 1948 he became the top scorer of the Olympic Games football tournament with seven goals, where he helped Sweden to win the Olymipic gold medal. It seemed that his value was too big for the Swedish championship and so it was. After he scored in the Swedish first league 149 goals in 172 matches played, he took the way of Italy, signing a contract with AC Milan. This contract is the beggining of a great era for AC Milan because Nordahl will be one of the leading players of 'The Devils' in their way of winning the most of the 50's Scudetto's (1950, 1954, 1956 and 1958) and not only.
He arrived at AC Milan on the 22nd January 1949, and in his first season wearing the red and black strips shirt, he scored an outstanding 16 goals in 15 games. Later, in AC Milan arrived his national side team mates, Gunnar Gren and Nils Liedholm, all off them forming the well known GRE-NO-LI trio.
The transfer to the Italian championship was equal for him with the retirement from the Swedish national team as the Swedish had strict rules against professionalism in sports. In his national team career, he scored 44 goals in 30 matches, on of the highest average ever, almost 1,5 goals a match. He played for AC Milan in eight seasons, in five of them being the Serie A top scorer. He scored for Milan a total of 210 goals. At the end of his career he played in AS Roma for two seasons. For AC Milan, he scored in Serie A a total of 210 goals.
He also contributed in a 7-1 AC Milan win against Juventus Torino. Unfortunately, he died in 1995, and he will remain for ever in history as one of the most powerful and greatest players of the game.
Trophies won:
::4 x Swedish title
::1 x Swedish cup
::2 x Italian title
::2 x Coppa Latina
::1 x Olympic Gold Medal
::4 x Swedish Top Scorer
::1 x Olympic Games Top Scorer
::5 x Italian League Top Scorer
Gianni Rivera
He was nicknamed 'The Golden Boy' of Italian football. He is the product of Alessandria's youth soccer academy. He debuted in Serie A for Alessandria against Internazionale Milano. That was on the 2nd of June 1959. He was only 15 years old. He only played for his first club 26 matches in which he scored 6 goals. After one year, he was bought by AC Milan with a record transfer fee for that time, 200.000 $. For a player who was only 16 years old. In 1962 he wins the first Scudetto with AC Milan and on the 13th of May 1962, at 18 years, he plays his first match for the Italian national team against West Germany in Chile, a game that finished with a goalless draw, 0-0.
Due to the win of the 1962 Scudetto, AC Milan gets into the chase for the European Cup in 1962, a European Cup which they have finally won, beating Benfica 2-1 in the final with a Rivera in great form as he was awarded the second place in the famous 'France Football Player of the Year' award, won by the Russian goalkeeper Lev Yashin.
In the 1967/1968 season he won with AC Milan both the title and the Cup Winners Cup. Next season, Rivera takes AC Milan to win the Champions Cup as he finally gets the 'France Football Player of the Year' award.
He plays with the 'Squadra Azzura' (Italian national team) in the 1970 World Cup hosted by Mexico where they reach the final lost against Brazil with 4-1 and in the 1974 World Cup when the Italians were knocked-out by the Poland national team with 2-1. That was the end of Rivera's career at the national team for which he played in 60 games scoring 14 goals.
Rivera took AC Milan in two Cup Winners Cup finals, one in 1973 and another in 1974; the first one was won and the second one lost. He also won with the red-and-black team two consecutive Italian titles, in 1972 and 1973. AC Milan also won several Italian Cups in the 70's but without Rivera in most of them who was banned because of his statements against the Italian referees.
Rivera won his last Scudetto of his career as a player in 1979 with AC Milan, this also being the 10th title for 'The Devils'. In the summer of that year Rivera retires after some freindlies played against Argentina.
Totally, he played for AC Milan in Serie A 501 matches and scored 122 goals.
After retirement, Rivera entered the Italian political life, being one of the members of the Italian Parliament.
Trophies won:
::4 x Italian cup
::3 x Italian title
::2 x Cup Winners Cup
::2 x European Cup
::1 x European Player of The Year
::1 x European Player of The Year runner-up
::1 x World Cup runner-up
::1 x Italian League Top Scorer
::1 x Intercontinental Cup
::1 x European tournament
Viva Gianni Rivera.
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