AC Milan icon Franco Baresi was laid to rest Tuesday morning at the Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio in Milan. The ceremony drew a massive gathering of footballing royalty and grieving supporters to honor the man named the club's Player of the Century.
The 20-year legacy of AC Milan's Player of the Century
Franco Baresi represented a rare era of loyalty in professional sports, spending the entirety of his 20-year playing career at the San Siro. According to the report, Baresi's tenure included two stints in Serie B during the 1980s,proving his commitment to the club long before he became a global icon. His leadership as captain for 14 years anchored a defense that secured six Serie A tittles and three European Cups.
The reverence for Baresi is cemented by the fact that AC Milan retired his No. 6 jersey at the end of his career. This gesture, combined with his 1999 desgination as the Player of the Century, underscores a level of institutional respect that is seldom seen in the modern, transient era of football transfers.
Maldini and van Basten gather at Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio
The funeral service saw a convergence of the greatest names in Italian football history. Marco van Basten served as one of the pallbearers, joined by former teammates Daniele Massaro, Roberto Donadoni, Filippo Galli, Angelo Colombo, and Giovanni Galli. Other luminaries in attendance included Paolo Maldini, Roberto Baggio, Clarence Seedorf, and former manager Fabio Capello.
While the majority of the current AC Milan squad is currently in Australia for pre-season training, the team was represented by injured players Christian Pulisic and Santiago Gimenez. The report says that the full squad will wear black armbands during their upcoming "Inter Milan Down Under" match in Perth on Wednesday to honor their late predecessor.
From Inter Milan's rejection to Beppe Bergomi's final tribute
The trajectory of Franco Baresi's career began with a surprising snub from the Inter Milan academy, where scouts deemed him too small and frail for the game in the 1970s. This rejection led him to the AC Milan academy, where the club's masseur , Paolo Mariconti , gave him the nickname Piscinin,meaning "little one" in the local Milanese dialect.
In a poignant display of sportsmanship, Beppe Bergomi—a legendary captain for rival Inter Milan and a close friend of Baresi—delivered the first reading at the ceremony. This bond was most recently highlighted in February, when Baresi and Bergomi together brought the Olympic flame into the San Siro for the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony.
Booing for Paolo Scaroni amid chants for the 'only one captain'
The atmosphere outside the church revealed a sharp divide between the love for the player and the perception of current leadership.. As reported by Gazzetta dello Sport, AC Milan chairman Paolo Scaroni and RedBird founder Gerry Cardinale were roundly booed by fans upon their arrival at the Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio.
While the Curva Sud supporters group used flares and sang "You'll Never Walk Alone," they simultaneously chanted that Baresi was the "only one captain." This juxtaposition suggests a deep-seated frustration among the fanbase regarding the current corporate direction of the club compared to the romanticized, lifelong loyalty embodied by Baresi.
The silence of the touring squad in Perth
Despite the presence of Pulisic and Gimenez, the absence of the active first-team squad from the funeral raises questions about the emotional toll of the current pre-season schedule. it remains unclear how the club coordinated the mourning process for players thousands of miles away in Australia,or if the "Inter Milan Down Under" fixture will be viewed as an inappropriate distraction during a week of national mourning for an Italian sporting hero.
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