Franco Baresi is the star of this week’s edition of Sportweek by La Gazzetta dello Sport, and the AC Milan icon spoke about a number of topics about his past at the club and the present moment.
Baresi is 64 years of age and he has spent 50 of them at Milan; 20 as a player, 15 as captain of the club. His record reads 719 official appearances, with six league titles, three Champions Leagues, two Intercontinental Cups and several other awards.
He is the first player to enter the newly formed Milan Hall of Fame (sponsored by Emirates, taking over from the old Hall of Fame) and on Tuesday 22nd his second book comes out, ‘Ancora in gioco’ (written with Federico Tavola, Sperling & Kupfer).
It is a travel diary of places, people and memories of his time as a player and the Milan that he knew, one that is far away from being replicated at present at least in terms of dominance on the global stage.
Baresi was the cover star of the Sportweek magazine and he spoke at length about various topics including his new book, why he isn’t seen much at Milanello and the issues surrounding the club at the moment.
Why, two years after the release of your autobiography ‘Libero di sognare’, did you feel the need for a new book? Is it a way to celebrate 50 years of Milan?
“My 50th birthday gave me the inspiration, then the publisher insisted on a story that went beyond my career as a footballer, which lasted 20 years. Then there are another 25 as a coach, manager, now vice-president, ambassador of the club.
“I wanted to tell the experiences I had around the world in this last role above all. Travels open the mind, and in my case they are like a mirror that reflects who I was and what I represent for others, what I have actually managed to convey to them.”
How have travels opened your mind? Aside from the experience you have gained with age, what makes you different from the Baresi of 20 or 30 years ago?
“Learning is a choice. The knowledge I have accumulated while traveling has enriched me in every way. It has helped me to listen to people who know more than me, and what I have learned I have brought with me to my work.
“Well, if there is one thing that makes me different from the man I was when I was young, it is the attention to others. The person always comes before the athlete, but it is an often ignored key. We rarely ask the person in front of us how they are, if they are satisfied or even happy.”
In the book, you write that in Manaus, Brazil, you met an archer, the first indigenous woman to end up in the national team, who told you about her difficult childhood. What kind of childhood was yours, instead?
“Equally difficult. I lost my mother at 13 and my father at 17. We children, three boys and two girls, had to grow up quickly. The people who remained by our side had the patience to wait for us, support us, respect the times of formation and growth of each of us.
“The eldest of my sisters, Lucia, was a bit of a mother to us, then luck was that Beppe and I left Travagliato, the small town in the province of Brescia where we were born, very early, I at 14 and he even earlier.
“Changing environment helped us find new energy and stimuli: we had an opportunity that we knew how to exploit, rolling up our sleeves. It also took a bit of luck and a helping hand from above.”
Are you very religious?
“I grew up in a Christian family.”
Have you ever had doubts about your faith?
“First of all I have faith in man’s behaviour, in the things he does. Then, when you have examples in your family, it comes naturally to you to follow them. Even in religious matters.”
Is Franco Baresi – who as an adult is a man of few words, whispers more than he speaks, and keeps his emotions to himself – the son of that faith and those losses?
“There’s a bit of everything in there. I certainly grew up in a simple, close-knit, country family with healthy values. Making it in Milan, in a completely different environment, wasn’t easy.”
How did you do it?
“Every child must follow their passion and believe in it to the end. I did it. I had a path to follow and I did it. Then you need talent and the luck to find the right people who bring out the best in you.
“The first day I entered Milanello I was 14 years old: in front of a sports centre that was already cutting edge, I felt like I had entered Paradise. At 16, 17, I played my first final in red and black, at Viareggio. I took it as a sign of destiny. And in fact many others came after that.”
You wrote in your book: ‘I have always maintained my identity as a dreaming child’. Do you still dream today?
“I always try to have goals and not disappoint those around me. You can win or lose, but you must never distort yourself. That’s what I’ve always tried to do. And the thing that gratifies me most today is the fact that people from all over the world, meeting me, almost 30 years after I stopped playing, show that they recognise me for what I was and what I have shown, trying to remain true to myself in every circumstance.”
But did you remember that it’s 50 years at Milan? Had you kept count?
“Actually, some friends reminded me of it. Honestly, I think my story is difficult to repeat.”
You wore the red and black jersey for the first time in 1974, how did it happen?
“The simplest way: a scout had received good reports about Travagliato, where I played, and came to see us. Afterwards, he organised a trial. The first one didn’t go too well, at least for me. But they gave me a second chance, and I took advantage of it.”
When you arrived in the first team, you initially sat at the table next to Gianni Rivera…
“Before that, I had been a ball boy at Milan’s home games and I had seen him play. Then I found him next to me as a player. At first I had a hard time addressing him informally. For me, he was a special person: he and Bigon protected me, they pampered me.”
The first of your Scudetti came in 1979 and it was the one that brought the first star…
“On paper, Inter and Juve were much stronger. The season was built day after day, the group began to believe in it more and more, and we won thanks to an impressive consistency of performance.”
Have you ever raised your voice?
“It wasn’t my style. I never started yelling. There’s no need. When things didn’t work, I set an example with my daily behaviour. Lots of small actions put together that you end up transmitting to your teammates: their philosophy, culture, their way of working in training. It gets the message across that the team, the club, comes first.”
Why don’t you take a trip to Milanello today, to still transmit the values that you embodied as captain?
“Because it’s not my role. It’s not my job. But this summer, on tour, I met Fonseca, I was with the players, and I noticed that there is always great respect towards me from everyone. The players of this Milan know who I am and what I did in Milan. They know the history, and this is important.”
Taking Leao under your arm, what would you say to him?
“I would tell him he’s lucky to be who he is. And not to forget that.”
And Theo?
“The same. But I think they know that, and they know they’re at a big club.”
And what about the time a coach or a team-mate scolded you?
“I can’t… (laughs). My luck was finding coaches who always made me feel good, allowing me to work calmly. This is why the man is more important than the athlete: to ensure that the latter performs as well as he can, it is necessary to get in tune with the former, understanding his psychology.”
Have you ever cried over football?
“It happened for some lost finals. And in the farewell match. Tears of joy, never: when you win you don’t cry.”
You write that he spent the first four years at Milanello. Who was your roommate?
“There were actually four of us in the room, we slept in bunk beds. One of them was Gabriello Carotti, an unfortunate talent. I still feel it today.”
Instead, in the first team, the roommate who made you laugh the most?
“Mauro Tassotti was funny, with his Roman accent. Di Canio was funny too.”
Who stopped you sleeping sometimes?
“It’s not that I changed roommates so many: at the beginning he had Colombo, then Tassotti, and then I was alone. You know, I was the captain…”
Of your coaches, who do you feel you owe thanks to?
“As a kid I had teachers like Annovazzi, Galbiati, Zagatti. Then, for 15 years out of 20, in the first team Liedholm, Sacchi and Capello. Liedholm was unique: ironic, great personality, he left you the right space so you could work calmly.
“He gave me my debut in Verona in ’78 telling me: ‘go and play as you know how’. He wanted to mean that I should play as I was used to in the youth teams, but it wasn’t exactly the same thing… Sacchi’s Milan was young, curious and unprejudiced, and he managed to involve us in his idea of football.
“We had all won little or nothing, so we were available to learn something new. The first training session was immediately very intense: at the end we were tired and aware that something was changing, but for the better. Capello instead found a mature team, he was more of a manager than a revolutionary”.
The architect of the great Milan of those years was Silvio Berlusconi…
“He was the true innovator. I will never forget the helicopters at the Arena, in July 1986. He had just become president and wanted to give a shake-up, a strong signal not only to the Milan environment, but to all of Italian football.”
A team-mate who you didn’t think was that good, and instead…
“I prefer to mention the one who could have done much more given the talent he had, if he hadn’t arrived at Milan at the end of his career and with various physical problems: Paulo Futre.”
And what about the one who, on the contrary, did not do justice to his talent?
“Here too, I prefer to answer that I was very sorry when Paolo Di Canio left Milan.”
The match you would play a thousand times?
“If we talk about the ones I won, Napoli-Milan 2-3 in ’88, which basically gave us the Scudetto, making us start a cycle, and Milan-Real 5-0 which took us to the Champions League final after 20 years.”
Would you pay out of your own pocket to relive the sensation of your 20 seasons in the first team?
“Entering the pitch, when you emerge from the tunnel and find yourself in front of a wall of crowds during important matches.”
You writes in the book: Milan is passion, style, sacrifice and success. Are these values that you find in the current team?
“These are values that encapsulate the history of the club, and they must be remembered. There is no Milan of today or yesterday, it is Milan and that’s it: by its very nature, Milan always aims for the best. We must remember this and behave accordingly.”
You coached the Rossoneri Primavera and Berretti: would yopu be able to adapt to today’s football and players, different from those of his time?
“Different why?”
Because today they have more knowledge, tools of all kinds, even more distractions…
“The world has changed, but I am sure that a footballer knows that football must continue to be at the centre of his activities and interests.”
This book is a memory of travels: Brazil, United States, Algeria, Israel, Iran… Which one made the biggest impression on you?
“Brazil. For the way of life of the people and the opportunities it can offer you. And also for its football, of course.”
You have traveled the world: with what is happening in the world, which image among the many that you have imprinted in your memory, would you give to the political leaders who are at war with each other, to convince them to stop?
“That of the children with whom we at Fondazione Milan started playing in the street, in Lebanon.”
As captain, the longest-serving in the Rossoneri, what were you most proud of?
“The satisfaction felt when the team played well and won.”
Does friendship exist in football?
“I found it. I won’t name names, but I found it.”
You write in the book: you have to aim for the sky, to at least hit the ceiling. Did you succeed?
“I’m happy with what I got. I can’t complain.”
To a 20-year-old who has never seen you play, how would you explain who Franco Baresi was?
“I would tell him to go and look at the stickers… Seriously: I would tell him that he was a player who is part of Milan’s history.”
Wonderful player and captain. Just read what Maradona said about him…
Iconic player.
They don’t make the old guards (footballers in general) like they use to anymore.
Modern football is all janked up
Leao cannot handle big matches. This is why he cannot be amongst the great. In Big matches, top defenders can stop Leao easily.