1899-1929
Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club was
officially formed on December 16th 1899, but the first time Milan’s name
appeared publicly was on Monday 18th in an article by the Gazzetta dello Sport
newspaper. The Club had its first headquarters in the Fiaschetteria Toscana in
Via Berchet in Milan and the President Alfred Ormonde Edwards entered the team
into the Italian Football Federation the following January. During its first
official season the team played just one game against Torino and despite the defeat
Milan got their first Trophy, the “King’s Medal”, given by King Umberto I. In
1900/01 Milan won their first national title and their second King’s Medal (the
Trophy was also won in the following season). Over the years Kiplin’s team had
widespread success and Milan became the most popular team in Lombardia and won
the prestigious “Palla Dapples” for three successive seasons (1904/05 - 1905/06
– 1906/07), even if it didn’t obtain great results in the Championship: the
second Scudetto only came in the 1905/06
season and the third Scudetto
was won the following season. The main player was Van Hege, a great top scorer
with 1.1 goals per match. In the 1914/15
season the Championship was stopped before the end of the season because
of the First World War, and it started again only in 1919. After several
changes regarding the management of the Club, Pietro Pirelli was appointed as
the new President: he held this role for almost twenty years, during which the
San Siro Stadium was inaugurated.
1929-1949
Between the two World Wars the team didn’t
obtain important results. In 1936 the name of the Club changed to Milan
Associazione Sportiva and in 1940, after several changes in the top management,
Umberto Trabattoni was appointed President and he left the Club in 1954. The
team had highs and lows and rarely reached the first four places of the League.
The Championship stopped because of the Second World War and started again in
1946/47: in this season Milan reached the fourth position after the great
Torino, Juventus and Modena. In the two following seasons the rossoneri reached
the second and the third place (the great Torino won both championships): this
was the signal of the rebirth.
1949-1955
The arrival of Nordhal, top goal scorer of
the 1949/50 season with 35 goals, marked the beginning of a new era. Milan was
strengthened by the arrival of the great goalkeeper Buffon, and another two
Swedes joined the team to make up the famous “Gre-No-Li” (Gren – Nordahl –
Liedholm). In the 1950/51 season, Milan won its fourth Scudetto and the Coppa
Latina as well. In 1952/53, 1953/54 and 1954/55 Nordhal, captain of the team,
was the leading goal scorer and led the team to their fifth Scudetto. In 1954
Juan Alberto Schiaffino, nicknamed “Pepe”, was bought from Penarol and became
one of the main protagonists of the following years.
1955-1960
In the season 1955/56 Milan played the
very first match of the first edition of the European Cup: they were defeated
in the semi-final by Real Madrid, who finally won the Cup. However, in the same
season Milan won the Coppa Latina for the second time, defeating Athletic
Bilbao (3-1) in the final match. In 1956/57 the new coach Gipo Viani won the
Scudetto, but the real surprise was Gastone Bean, who scored 17 goals. A year
later Josè Altafini joined the team: he won the public consent for his skills
and speed, and together with the “old” captain Liedholm, Cesare Maldini and
“Pepe” Schiaffino, won the Scudetto at the end of an exciting head to head with
Fiorentina. The last season played by Schiaffino, one of the greatest champions
in football history, wasn’t particularly successful for the rossoneri, but
Milan had its revenge defeating Inter in the spring derby, winning the match
5-3 (Altafini scored four of Milan’s five goals).
1960-1970
While the previous years had been marked
by the supremacy of foreign players (Gre-No-Li, Schiaffino-Altafini), in the
following years, between 1960 and 1970, Italian players, who would later reach
international fame, were the main characters of the rossoneri history. Some
Olympic players, such as Trapattoni, Trebbi, Alfieri and Noletti joined the team, together with a young boy
named Gianni Rivera who played his first game when he was only 17 against
Alessandria, his previous team (Milan won 5-3). The rossoneri were protagonists
in the Championship but the last two defeats against Bari and Fiorentina gave
Milan the second place. When Nils Liedholm left football and at the same time
“Paròn” Nereo Rocco arrived as the new coach,
a new era, marked by national and international successes, started. The
first trophy was the Scudetto, but the most exciting success was the first
European Cup. The final against Benfica, played at Wembley on 22nd May 1963, was a fascinating match: Milan
raised the cup after defeating Benfica 2-1 (Altafini scored two goals and Eusebio scored for Benfica). The image
of Cesare Maldini who raised the cup together with Nereo Rocco is still
imprinted in the memory of all the supporters. However Milan lost the decisive
match (1-0) played at Maracanà Stadium against Santos in the final of the
Europeran-South American Cup after a troubled final. At the end of the season
the Chairman Andrea Rizzoli left the Club after nine years of great successes:
4 Scudetti, 1 Latin Cup and the prestigious European Cup. He is remembered not
only for his sports achievements, but also for the training centre of Milanello
that is still a very important asset of the Club. After a few disappointing
seasons, in 1967/68 rossoneri got their ninth Scudetto and the prestige of the
Club grew with the victory of the
European Cup Winners’ Cup, the first in Milan’s history. In the European Cup final of the following
season, the Rivera-Prati axis and the “black spider”, the goalkeeper Cudicini,
led Milan to victory (4-1) against
Cruijff’s Ajax. Finally Milan also achieved the European-South American Cup
despite the defeat (2-0) in the return match played at the Bombonera Stadium
against Estudiantes. Milan won the trophy thanks to the score (3-0) of the
first match played at San Siro. The Rossoneri also won their first Winners’ Cup
in the 1967/68 season. Gianni Rivera, with his inborn and incomparable quality,
showed beautiful actions that helped him to win the most prestigious
recognition for a football player in 1969, the Golden Ball, because “Gianni
Rivera is the only player who gives football a poetry sense”.
1970-1985
This period was one of the darkest in the
history of the Club and it left few gratifications: the most important was the
winning of the “Star” (given for 10 league titles) in 1979. During those
years Milan also won three Italian Cups
and their second European Cup Winners’ Cup. In
the line up, led by Liedholm there was a young football player who would
later become one of the undisputed protagonists in Milan’s history and one of
the strongest defenders in Italian football, Franco Baresi. His first game with
the rossoneri was played on April 23rd, Verona – Milan 1-2. Those years were
also characterised by many changes on the bench and in the Club management.
Gianni Rivera, one of the main
protagonists in the achievement of the “Star”, left football forever, but he
became the Vice-President of the Club. The early ’80s weren’t so positive but
they saw the debut of Paolo Maldini, the heir to Franco Baresi, the historical
captain. The young Paolo played his first official match on January 20th 1985
(Udinese- Milan 1-1).
1985-2007
Nils Liedholm came back on the bench, but
this change didn’t improve Milan’s results and a top management turning point
was clearly necessary. Finally, on March 24th, 1986 Silvio
Berlusconi was nominated the 21st President of
AC Milan. He brought a great enthusiasm with an innovative
market-oriented management and recently celebrated his 20th
Anniversary as AC Milan President (March 1986 – March 2006) when a great party
was given in his honour . In the 1986/87 season he signed important contracts,
including those with Donadoni, Bonetti, Galderisi, Massaro and Giovanni Galli
next to Hateley and Wilkins. Despite
underperforming in the Championship, Milan reached the goal of taking part in
the European competitions winning the play-off against Sampdoria thanks to a
goal scored by Daniele Massaro. 1987/88 was the season of the revival with the
coach Arrigo Sacchi, master of the “zone play”, of the total play, of pressing
and speed. The team was also strengthened by the arrival of Van Basten and
Gullit, together with Ancelotti and Colombo as well as Alessandro Costacurta,
who came directly from Milan’s youth team. The beginning of the season was
great: the extraordinary affection of the supporters was rewarded with an
unforgettable season. Despite some adverse decisions from the sports judge
(i.e. the 0-2 defeat by default against
Roma), the team reacted with an extraordinary performance at San Paolo Stadium
against Maradona’s Napoli: on 18th May 1988 Milan won their 11th Scudetto, the first of the Berlusconi
era, defeating Napoli 3-2. After Gullit
and Van Basten the third Dutch player, Frank Rijkaard, joined the team: this
was the second trio made up by players from the same country after the previous
Gre-No-li trio. This led to successes and victories: Milan established itself
in Italy, in Europe and in the world. In 1988/89 Milan won the European
Champion Clubs’ Cup final against Steaua Bucarest.in Barcelona. Over one
hundred thousand Rossoneri supporters arrived in Barcelona, the most impressive
exodus in football history. With the coach Arrigo Sacchi Milan won a league
title, two European Champion Clubs’
Cups, two European-South American Cups, two European Supercups and one League
Supercup. In 1992/93 Fabio Capello, a former Milan player, substituted Arrigo
Sacchi and led the Club to many successes, especially at a national level: four league titles (three titles in a row),
three League Supercups, one European Champion Clubs’ Cup (won in the
unforgettable Athens’ final against the favourite Crujiff’s Barcelona) and one
European Supercup. The 1986-1996 season was the most prolific period as regards
the Rossoneri’s trophies and the so-called “Immortal” and “Invincible” team
showed excellent performances and played exciting matches. But the late ‘90s
weren’t as positive as the early ‘90s: Milan wasn’t as prestigious as it had
been in the past both in Italy and in Europe. Some coaches alternated on the
bench (Tabarez, then Sacchi and Capello again): with the arrival of Zaccheroni
in 1999 Milan won its sixteenth Scudetto in the same season as the Club’s
Centenary celebration. In 2001 Ancelotti came back to Milan as a coach and a
new period of successes started. The first triumph was on May 28th, 2003, when
the Rossoneri won the UEFA Champions League in an unforgettable Italian Final
against Juventus. Three days later Milan won the Italian Cup for the fifth time
and the European Supercup in August. In the 2003/2004 season the Rossoneri
conquered the 17th league title and the League Supercup. In the two following
seasons the Rossoneri were ready for new great achievements. In spite of the quite peculiar start of the
season due to summer events related to Calciopoli Italian football scandal,
Milan were determined to pass the UEFA Champions League qualification rounds to
which they were relegated by rulings of the Sports Justice Bodies. Many players
had to interrupt their holidays, but none of them missed the training sessions.
The team succeeded in qualifying for the 2006/2007 Champions League group
stage by defeating the Red Star in both
legs. The Rossoneri started the Championship brilliantly, in spite of the
penalisation, but during winter break they showed signs of fatigue and their
performances dropped down. In Europe, on the contrary, the team performed quite
well and even qualified for the UCL competition’s knock-out stage two matchdays in advance. During the Championship
break the team spent fifteen days in Malta to fully recover, assisted by the
technical staff on an individual basis. Specific individual and group training
sessions efficiently contributed to the season’s final sprint. Milan succeeded
indeed in reaching important objectives:
the fourth place in the league and the extraordinary UEFA Champions League
victory in Athens. A night of magic and
emotions that made the red and black colours triumph in Europe once again, for
the 7th time. The last conquered trophy is the European Supercup won on 31st
August 2007 in Montecarlo in the final played against Seville, the Uefa Cup
title holder: a match played without enthusiasm due to the premature death of
the Andalusian player Antonio Puerta. Finally AC Milan added to their Prize
Record the first FIFA Club World Cup that was won on December 16th
at Yokohama International Stadium against Boca Juniors.
Over the last few seasons the Rossoneri,
four-times semi-finalists of the top European competition in five years, have certainly reaffirmed themselves as key
players in the national and international scenarios, and are prepared for new
achievements supported by the enthusiasm of their numerous fans In Italy and
abroad, and by over one hundred year tradition of emotions and successes.
