Monday, August 27, 2007
AC Milan History
AC Milan's glorious history dates back to the night of the 16th of December, 1899 when Englishman Alfred Edwards formed and later became president of the newly founded Milan Cricket and Football Club. The location was the Fiaschetteria Toscana in via Berchet. The club was well frequented by English sportsmen and the top people of Milanese culture where they would discuss their team over cocktails at the American Bar. Till the breakaway on the 9th of March 1908 which led to the formation of rivals Inter, Milan FC had already won three Italian League titles. In 1926 Pietro Pirelli, a frequenter of the American Bar, decided to put his money into Milan's new stadium, the San Siro. However, Milan's English origins were out of favour with the Italian Fascist movement of the time and Milan had to wait till after World War II to start to recover. The purchase of players like Gren, Liedholm and Nordhal (Gre-No-Li) helped Milan back to the top of Italian football.
Between the years 1948 and 1966 Milan managed to finish in the top three of the Serie A each year but one, also managing to win four Serie A titles. Milan imported some top football stars to help them achieve this. Uruguayan Juan Schiaffino and Brasilian Jose Altafini were two of these stars. Milan managed to reach the final of the European Cup in 1958 only to lose 3-2 to the great Real Madrid. In 1963 Milan managed to reach the final again. This time Milan won 2-1 with both goals scored by Altafini, after Eusebio had put Benfica in front. In this team there was a figure head which was to dominate Milan's team for 15 years. His name was Gianni Rivera. Alongside him were other great players who were to influence the future of Italian soccer, Cesare Maldini, father of Paolo Maldini, and Giovanni Trapattoni, who would win the scudetto as manager for seven times. Manager of this team was Nereo Rocco who was sometimes more of a father then a manager to most players. In 1968 Milan won their first Cup Winner's Cup beating Hamburg of Germany 2-0. In 1969 Milan became Euro champions again, this time beating Johan Cruyff's Ajax 4-1 in a one sided match with Italian forward Pierino Prati scoring three goals.
This team would then go on to win the World Club Championship beating Estudiantes with an aggregate score of 4-2 in two matches. In 1979 Rivera's last season at Milan would bring to the club the much desired tenth league title and hence the honour of wearing the star on their jersey, an honour only shared by three clubs till this very day. Then came Milan darkest period. Under President Felice Colombo Milan were relegated to Serie B for match rigging. After playing themselves back to the Serie A, Milan went back down to the Serie B under President Giuseppe Farina who fled to South Africa with a fortune of players money. Silvio Berlusconi appeared on the scene in 1986 in a spectacular but difficult takeover of the club. The first thing he did was to heavily invest in the club's youth structures and in Milanello, Milan's training grounds, making them the envy of every Italian and European club. He also courageously entrusted his nearly 40 million dollar investment into the hands of an unknown manager by the name of Arrigo Sacchi. Berlusconi's emphasis was in developing Milan's team into a business structure, full of innovative ideas and managerial style of development. Sacchi quickly invested the money entrusted to him to purchase Dutch trio Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard who together with youth prodigies like Franco Baresi, Mauro Tassotti and Paolo Maldini and some other good signings like Roberto Donadoni and Carlo Ancelotti turned Milan into an unstoppable machine, even pipping Maradona's Napoli out of a league title in 1988. Milan crushed Steau Bucharest in the European Cup final 4-0 after thrashing Real Madrid 5-0 in the semi final. However, the work rate involved in Sacchi's hard pressing game began to take its toll and after winning another European Cup in 1990 with a solitary Rijkaard goal against Benfica, Sacchi took over the Italian national team. Milan new coach was Fabio Capello, who at the time was a manager in one of Berlusconi's companies. In his first season Capello won the Serie A title without losing a single game, starting an historic unbeaten run which was to last an incredible 58 games. Milan went on to win three consecutive titles from 1992-1994 with big scores of 7-3, 5-3, 5-1 and 8-2. Marco van Basten became Italy's all time higest scoring foreigner before injuring his ankle which prematurely ended his career. At the end of this run Milan had to face Cruyff's Barcellona in the European Cup final in Athens. Cruyff was overconfident saying that Barcellona would tear apart Milan after managing to score three times as many goals as Milan had did in thei league. Contrary to all expectations, Milan went out on an all out attack and thrashed Barcellona 4-0 with great performances by Frenchman Marcel Desailly and Montenegrin Dejan Savicevic.
The next European Cup final however, proved evasive and Milan lost 1-0 to Ajax, also due to a number of missing stars in the final. From here on Milan went into lethargy and have not recovered since. Capello was replaced by Uruguayan Oscar Tabarez, again by Arrigo Sacchi and Capello was again given the manager's driving seat. None of these changes have been effective. In the hands of new man Alberto Zaccheroni, Milan have incredibly managed to win the scudetto on his first opportunity. The only managers in the history books that managed to do this were the now legendary Nereo Rocco, Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello.
Zaccheroni lasted till middway 2001 with the duo of Cesare Maldini / Mauro Tassotti taking over. The highest achievement of this duo was the 6-0 thrashing of Inter, which will certainly go down in Milan's history books. At this time Milan were already on the look out for a new manager in Fatih Terim. The Turk brought with him some good football. However, this manager only lasted a couple of months after an inconsistent string of results Carlo Ancelotti took over.
The year 2003 was Ancelotti's year. He was entrusted with players like Nesta, Pirlo, Seedorf and Rivaldo which added quality to the team and the club under his guidance went on to win two trophies the Champions League, where they met rivals Inter in the semi-final and then Juventus in the final and three days the Coppa Italia which had been missing from the trophy room from 1977. Milan also finished third in the Serie A. Ancelotti continued his fine run at Milan by winning the 17th Scudetto. He is the first ever manager to have won both as a player and as a manager for the same team. The 17th title was also Maldini's and Costacurta's 7th scudetto. It's now 2007 and Milan manage to win the Champions League for the 7th time after being penalised in the league with a points deduction. It was maldini's 5th triumph which takes him to legendary status.
Serie A Champions: 1901, 1906, 1907, 1951, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1962, 1968, 1979, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004
Coppa Italia winners: 1967, 1972, 1973, 1977, 2003
European Champions: 1963, 1969, 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003, 2007
Cup Winners Cup winners: 1968, 1973
Intercontinental Champions: 1969, 1989, 1990
European Super Cup: 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003
Italian Super Cup: 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2004
Between the years 1948 and 1966 Milan managed to finish in the top three of the Serie A each year but one, also managing to win four Serie A titles. Milan imported some top football stars to help them achieve this. Uruguayan Juan Schiaffino and Brasilian Jose Altafini were two of these stars. Milan managed to reach the final of the European Cup in 1958 only to lose 3-2 to the great Real Madrid. In 1963 Milan managed to reach the final again. This time Milan won 2-1 with both goals scored by Altafini, after Eusebio had put Benfica in front. In this team there was a figure head which was to dominate Milan's team for 15 years. His name was Gianni Rivera. Alongside him were other great players who were to influence the future of Italian soccer, Cesare Maldini, father of Paolo Maldini, and Giovanni Trapattoni, who would win the scudetto as manager for seven times. Manager of this team was Nereo Rocco who was sometimes more of a father then a manager to most players. In 1968 Milan won their first Cup Winner's Cup beating Hamburg of Germany 2-0. In 1969 Milan became Euro champions again, this time beating Johan Cruyff's Ajax 4-1 in a one sided match with Italian forward Pierino Prati scoring three goals.
This team would then go on to win the World Club Championship beating Estudiantes with an aggregate score of 4-2 in two matches. In 1979 Rivera's last season at Milan would bring to the club the much desired tenth league title and hence the honour of wearing the star on their jersey, an honour only shared by three clubs till this very day. Then came Milan darkest period. Under President Felice Colombo Milan were relegated to Serie B for match rigging. After playing themselves back to the Serie A, Milan went back down to the Serie B under President Giuseppe Farina who fled to South Africa with a fortune of players money. Silvio Berlusconi appeared on the scene in 1986 in a spectacular but difficult takeover of the club. The first thing he did was to heavily invest in the club's youth structures and in Milanello, Milan's training grounds, making them the envy of every Italian and European club. He also courageously entrusted his nearly 40 million dollar investment into the hands of an unknown manager by the name of Arrigo Sacchi. Berlusconi's emphasis was in developing Milan's team into a business structure, full of innovative ideas and managerial style of development. Sacchi quickly invested the money entrusted to him to purchase Dutch trio Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard who together with youth prodigies like Franco Baresi, Mauro Tassotti and Paolo Maldini and some other good signings like Roberto Donadoni and Carlo Ancelotti turned Milan into an unstoppable machine, even pipping Maradona's Napoli out of a league title in 1988. Milan crushed Steau Bucharest in the European Cup final 4-0 after thrashing Real Madrid 5-0 in the semi final. However, the work rate involved in Sacchi's hard pressing game began to take its toll and after winning another European Cup in 1990 with a solitary Rijkaard goal against Benfica, Sacchi took over the Italian national team. Milan new coach was Fabio Capello, who at the time was a manager in one of Berlusconi's companies. In his first season Capello won the Serie A title without losing a single game, starting an historic unbeaten run which was to last an incredible 58 games. Milan went on to win three consecutive titles from 1992-1994 with big scores of 7-3, 5-3, 5-1 and 8-2. Marco van Basten became Italy's all time higest scoring foreigner before injuring his ankle which prematurely ended his career. At the end of this run Milan had to face Cruyff's Barcellona in the European Cup final in Athens. Cruyff was overconfident saying that Barcellona would tear apart Milan after managing to score three times as many goals as Milan had did in thei league. Contrary to all expectations, Milan went out on an all out attack and thrashed Barcellona 4-0 with great performances by Frenchman Marcel Desailly and Montenegrin Dejan Savicevic.
The next European Cup final however, proved evasive and Milan lost 1-0 to Ajax, also due to a number of missing stars in the final. From here on Milan went into lethargy and have not recovered since. Capello was replaced by Uruguayan Oscar Tabarez, again by Arrigo Sacchi and Capello was again given the manager's driving seat. None of these changes have been effective. In the hands of new man Alberto Zaccheroni, Milan have incredibly managed to win the scudetto on his first opportunity. The only managers in the history books that managed to do this were the now legendary Nereo Rocco, Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello.
Zaccheroni lasted till middway 2001 with the duo of Cesare Maldini / Mauro Tassotti taking over. The highest achievement of this duo was the 6-0 thrashing of Inter, which will certainly go down in Milan's history books. At this time Milan were already on the look out for a new manager in Fatih Terim. The Turk brought with him some good football. However, this manager only lasted a couple of months after an inconsistent string of results Carlo Ancelotti took over.
The year 2003 was Ancelotti's year. He was entrusted with players like Nesta, Pirlo, Seedorf and Rivaldo which added quality to the team and the club under his guidance went on to win two trophies the Champions League, where they met rivals Inter in the semi-final and then Juventus in the final and three days the Coppa Italia which had been missing from the trophy room from 1977. Milan also finished third in the Serie A. Ancelotti continued his fine run at Milan by winning the 17th Scudetto. He is the first ever manager to have won both as a player and as a manager for the same team. The 17th title was also Maldini's and Costacurta's 7th scudetto. It's now 2007 and Milan manage to win the Champions League for the 7th time after being penalised in the league with a points deduction. It was maldini's 5th triumph which takes him to legendary status.
Serie A Champions: 1901, 1906, 1907, 1951, 1955, 1957, 1959, 1962, 1968, 1979, 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 1996, 1999, 2004
Coppa Italia winners: 1967, 1972, 1973, 1977, 2003
European Champions: 1963, 1969, 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003, 2007
Cup Winners Cup winners: 1968, 1973
Intercontinental Champions: 1969, 1989, 1990
European Super Cup: 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003
Italian Super Cup: 1988, 1992, 1993, 1994, 2004
YOU'LL NEVER WALK ALONE
When you walk through a storm
hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At the end of a storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never, ever walk alone.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never, ever walk alone.
hold your head up high
And don't be afraid of the dark.
At the end of a storm is a golden sky
And the sweet silver song of a lark.
Walk on through the wind,
Walk on through the rain,
Tho' your dreams be tossed and blown.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never, ever walk alone.
Walk on, walk on with hope in your heart
And you'll never walk alone,
You'll never, ever walk alone.
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