Since it’s founding in 1899, Associazione Calcio Milan has won 18 domestic titles, and is widely revered as one of the most successful clubs not only in Italy, but Europe and the world, many of the worlds greatest ever players donning the famous red and black strip.
Milan’s latest league triumph comes exactly 110 years after the very first league victory back in 1901, and will now enter the history books under the seemingly endless list of successes for the Rossoneri.
Over that period, now spanning over a century, Milan have won the league with numerous different sides; from the early rivalry with Genoa, to the Swedish led strike force of the 1950’s, to Gianni Rivera inspired side that won its first European Cup back in 1963, led by the infamous disciplinarian Nereo Rocco. And of course, the small matter of the great “Immortals” of the late 1980’s to the early 1990’s, which can lay the claim to be being one of, if not the best club side ever seen in world football.
So how does the class of 2011 compare to those now legendary days of old? Well it has all the ingredients of a classic Milan side – and bears a strange resemblance to the first season under Don Fabio Capello in the 1991/2 season: A strong defence that concedes few, a hardworking, enigmatic midfield, led by a charismatic forward. Obviously Milan have a long way to go before we can justifiably compare this years champions to those heady days – as good as Van Bommel and Boateng are, Rikjaard and Gullit they are not.
That Milan side, from Arrigo Sacchi to Capello were, with no fear of reprisal from the cliche’ police, one of the greatest sides to ever grace a football field, sweeping aside their closest rivals with almost insolent ease – those Milan fans with long memories will tell of the day that Johann Cruyff’s Barcelona – the “Dream team” of Guardiola and Romario were beaten 4-0 by Milan in the Champions League final in 1994, in what was a display of clinical brutality, a red and black tide flowing irrepressibly to glory whist Catalans chased shadows.
Move further back, and we reach the Rossoneri of the 60’s, led by legendary Nereo Rocco, who alongside Helenio Herrera at cross town rivals Inter, could lay the claim as being one of the most famous managers of that decade. A staunch disciplinarian, and a firm believer in Catenaccio, Rocco built a side around Gianni Rivera, whose genius propelled Il Diavolo to a title in 1968, as well as two European cups in that decade, competing with Herrea’s Inter for continental domination – succeeding in 1963 and 1969.
These are just two sides that I have picked out, I haven’t even mentioned the great Swedish front three that allowed Milan to compete with John Charles’s Juventus, or even Alberto Zaccheroni’s side of 1999 with George Weah at the point of a tough side that overturned Erikson’s great Lazio side.
To compare this Milan to the glory days of the past 50 years at the moment, would be unfair. This is the first season under Masimilliano Allegri, and there are plenty of opportunities to prove that this Milan can be held with the same sort of respect and adoration that previous ones received. It still has many of the players that last won the Scudetto – the likes of Alessandro Nesta, Massimo Ambrosini and Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo key parts of the side that dominated Serie A in 2004, as well as reaching 3 Champions League Finals in 4 years.
This is a side still in transition. As the aforementioned veterans move on, it is up to the new generation of Rossonero to pick where they left off, and prove to Italy, and the world, that they have what it takes to place their name with pride alongside Marco Van Basten, Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi. Time will tell, but at the moment, it proves to be an exciting time to be a Milan fan.
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