SPORT/ DEATH OF BERLUSCONI: THE ARCHITECT OF THE GREAT MILAN THAT DOMINATED EUROPEAN FOOTBALL IN THE 80S AND 90S
Silvio Berlusconi died on Monday, June, 12th in Milan. A city that will remain indelibly linked to the former Italian Prime Minister, a right-wing figure, former Member of Parliament and businessman in the construction and then television industries.
His memory will be eternally associated with AC Milan, the club he saved from bankruptcy by buying it from Giussy Farina on 20 February 1986. Under his leadership, the Lombardy club became the great Milan, reigning over Italy and European football.
29 titles, including 5 Champions Leagues
During his 31-year presidency (1986-2017), Milan won 29 titles, including five Champions Leagues and eight Italian championships (Serie A). It also won an Italian Cup, seven Italian Super Cups, two Intercontinental Cups, five UEFA Super Cups and a Club World Cup.
The sulphurous manager, who has been involved in a number of legal cases, has seen the best players of every generation pass through the Rossoneri ranks, including Frank Rijkaard, Marco van Basten, Kaka, Andrei Shevchenko and Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
He left Milan in 2017 after selling the club to Chinese investors (it is now owned by the American group RedBird capital).
«Today, after more than 30 years, I leave the title and office of president of Milan,” he wrote at the time of his departure. I do so with pain and emotion, but in the knowledge that modern football requires investments and resources to compete at the highest European and world levels that a single family can no longer afford. I will always be the first tifoso of Milan, the team my father taught me to love as a child».
In the end, the man nicknamed ‘Il Cavaliere’ made very little break with football, taking over the Monza club a few months later in the company of his inseparable right-hand man, Adriano Galliani.
The duo managed to take the club from Serie C to Serie A. Berlusconi, who has been involved in a number of sex scandals in his life, had recently gone off the rails by promising his players «a busload of prostitutes» if they beat some of Serie A’s top teams.
In the end, his team comfortably held their own in the top flight. It was his last sporting success before he died on Monday of leukaemia.
Source : rmcsport.bfmtv.com
