Legendary French forward Jean-Pierre Papin has praised the path that AC Milan are on at the moment and recalled his memories of playing Porto.
Papin took Europe by storm throughout his 17-year playing career wherein he won everything – beginning with Marseille from 1986 to 1992, followed by stints at Milan, Bayern Munich and Bordeaux.
His former team take on Porto in the Champions League on Tuesday evening in matchday 3 of the group stages and the ex-Rossoneri striker took his chance to reminisce one of his greatest ever goals, which incidentally arrived at the Estadio do Dragao in 1992/93 group stages.
No.11 strike partner Marco Simone headed the ball in the path of Papin right outside the penalty box, which the Frenchman connected with utmost precision before volleying it in with deadly accuracy in the top corner, stunning the Portuguese home crowd with the only goal of the match.
Speaking to MilanTV in an exclusive interview (via MilanLive), the current manager said: “My memory of Porto? A very difficult game, it was terrible to play at their home. But my goal is one of the best with Milan.
“I was only thinking about scoring. Beautiful memory, I yelled at Gullit to let me shoot and it went well. Many have sent me those images on Facebook, I think I have left something at Milan.”
The Frenchman spent two seasons at the San Siro, between 1992 and 1994, where he conquered the Scudetto twice and won the Champions League in 1993/94 with the Rossoneri.
“I was lucky enough to play the Champions League for 8 years, it is the most beautiful event that exists. Milan are a myth, a team that in the history of Europe has been among the best, who have won a lot.”
He was part of the Marseille team in 1990/91, who lost the European Cup final at the hands of Red Star Belgrade on penalties.
“When I arrived the dream was to win the Champions League after losing it with Marseille. It was too important. Two years earlier I had seen AC Milan win the final 4-0 against Barcelona, I thought it would be perfect to play in that team.”
Finally, he shone light on how it felt to play alongside one of the finest ever footballers to emerge from The Netherlands, Marco van Basten.
“When I arrived there was still Van Basten, he was the boss. Then he got injured and I expressed myself well, I had the coach’s confidence. Playing with Marco made my heart beat, but unfortunately he immediately got hurt and was out for 8 months.”
Papin scored 31 goals for Milan in 63 appearances, before moving on to Bavarian giants Bayern Munich for the next two seasons.
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Loved watching papin with Simone and massaro. He was quality