Silvio Berlusconi, the former AC Milan owner and president, died yesterday at the age of 86. In his three decades in charge of the club, he transformed them into a global superpower after being closed to bankruptcy when he took over.
Today’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (via PianetaMilan) writes how it was back in February 1986 that Berlusconi bought the club and saved it from potentially going under, announcing himself the next month by arriving via helicopter to introduce himself.
He wanted to bring trophies to Milan but also an entertaining style of football, with Adriano Galliani and Ariedo Braida joining his team of collaborators, while the renovation of the old headquarters on Via Turati and the Milanello training centre helped move the club forward.
The hiring of Arrigo Sacchi and the signings of Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten (later joined by Frank Rijkaard) sewed the seeds for success. A Scudetto arrived in 1988, then the first European Cup in 1989 with a 4-0 win against Steaua Bucharest, then then the Intercontinental Cup.
Berlusconi always enjoyed talking about football, giving ‘tactical advice’ to all his coaches, convinced that the best version of Milan was the one with an attacking midfielder and two strikers.
Meanwhile, the trophies continued to add up: another European Cup in 1990 with a 1-0 win over Benfica and another Intercontinental Cup. They lost in the final to Marseille in 1991, but under Fabio Capello achieved a remarkable 4-0 win against Barcelona in 1994 to notch another Champions League title.
In the meantime, Berlusconi had entered politics, founding Forza Italia and Milan had already started towards a slow decline, despite the arrival of players like Jean-Pierre Papin, Andriy Shevchenko, Ronaldinho, Zlatan Ibrahimović.
His Milan’s first 16 titles came between 1988 and 1994; the other 13 over the next 23 seasons. Sporadic league titles with Alberto Zaccheroni (1999) and Max Allegri (2011) came either side of Carlo Ancelotti’s Scudetto win (2004) and two Champions Leagues (2003 and 2007).
Berlusconi’s last joy as president of Milan came on 23 December 2016 in Doha in the Supercoppa won on penalties against Juventus. A few months later, the club were sold to a Chinese group and an era ended.
