Silvio Berlusconi’s impending sale of AC Milan is source of great sadness for the president, according to former coach Arrigo Sacchi.
On Wednesday, prospective new owner Yonghong Li arrived in Milan ahead of completing his purchase of the club as a final €190 million transfer will be made on Thursday to finalise the changing of the guard at the Diavolo.
It will bring to an end Berlusconi’s 31 years at the helm of the club and Sacchi revealed that he shared a phone call with the 80-year-old, who expressed his feelings about the sale.
“I received a phone call from Berlusconi tonight and he told me he is very, very sorry about the sale,” the ex-Milan boss told Premium Sport. “He spent a lot of money but he always did so with passion.
“He didn’t just think about winning but he wanted to achieve certain projects and dreams for the club. It will certainly mark the end of an era.”
Sacchi paid a special tribute to the outgoing president and his right hand man Adriano Galliani, insisting that without them, Italian football may not have received the boom it did throughout the end of the 1980s and into the ’90s.
“I’m also saddened because I always had contact with Berlusconi and Galliani,” he continued. “Berlusconi has been a very important figure for Italian football because he raised the profile of the club and the league.
“Thanks to him, Serie A had a renaissance. That Milan team [in the late 1980s and early 1990s] is considered the best club side of all time. It will be very strange to no longer have Berlusconi and Galliani at Milan.”
