Silvio Berlusconi AC Milan era assessed after historic Chinese group takeover
Friday 14 April 2017 12:25, UK
As a Chinese group takes control of AC Milan, we reflect on the trophy-laden Silvio Berlusconi era...
So it's done. After months of delays and uncertainties, the looming prospect of the AC Milan takeover is finally a reality.
The baton was handed over to Chinese group Sino-Europe Sports on Thursday, and the £630m deal marks the end of an era. Not just for the Rossoneri, but also as far as world football is concerned. Because Berlusconi has been, and still is, one of the most decorated presidents in the game, and one of the few men to be both the owner and president of their club.
There was plenty of nostalgia during the final meeting on Thursday, and with a lengthy note published after the so-called "closing", Berlusconi expressed his agony in selling the club, stating he will always be their "first supporter".
"I leave Milan with pain and sorrow, but knowing that in modern football, to be at the top in Europe and in the world, you need constant investments and resources that one family on its own cannot afford to provide anymore," the statement read.
"I will never forget the deep emotions that Milan gave me and all of us. Milan will always be the team which my father taught me to love when I was a child, and the dream that we fulfilled together."
It has been a long journey, and one the former Italian prime minister will be remembered for. He took over the Milan franchise in February 1986, saving the club from a seemingly certain bankruptcy, and ever since taking the helm, it has been quite the experience for him as president.
He has brought home 29 trophies, at a rate of almost one per year, a number which most football tycoons - including Real Madrid's Florentino Perez and Arsenal's Stan Kroenke - can only dream of.
But what does he leave behind? Apart from five Champions League trophies, eight Serie A titles and three Club World Cups, the legacy of the most successful AC Milan in history and his fame as a pioneer of the modern game.
Arrigo Sacchi's early 1990s title-winning side is poised by many as being, aside from the greatest Milan squad of all-time, one of the most influential and revolutionary teams in history: a heap of class and talent, started off with the signings of the magic Dutch trio Van Basten-Rijkaard-Gullit, which made Milan fans only but dream of bigger goals to come.
Footballing-wise, most of the merit and praise for the success of the club has to be given to chief executive Adriano Galliani, the vital tireless machine that kept the club running with plenty of transfer market genius involving some of the biggest names in football - from the discoveries of Kaka and Andriy Shevchenko to the bargains for Clarence Seedorf and Marco van Basten; and from the quirks of the free transfers of David Beckham and Ronaldinho to the top player signings involving Rui Costa, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Ruud Gullit and George Weah.
But Berlusconi's triumphs at Milan were also enhanced by a huge trust in the youth team which saw legends of the game such as Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta and Paolo Maldini grow up among the others, and that shaped the captaincy of the first team for most of his tenure.
This done deal draws a line between Milan's past and its future. A new era for Italian football is ushered in.
