Silvio Berlusconi, the ‘father’ of Dutch AC Milan who could never sign Maradona and who paid 10 million euros for Lapadula

He spent 31 years at the helm of the Milan team and achieved a total of 29 titles, including five of the seven Champions League that the rossonero team has in its showcases.

figure constellation

He was the one who managed to bring together players of the stature of Marco Van Basten, Ruud Gullit and Frank Rijkaard in Calcio, and then have figures like Paolo Maldini -from home- Seedorf, Pirlo and Kaká, the one who also bought Ronaldo and had in their ranks to Ronaldinho.

Sacchi’s Milan is also Berlusconi’s Milan, and Fabio Capello’s, who made the team a winning squad between 1986 and 1996, a decade of titles: five Serie A, three Champions and two Intercontinentals.

“I am the president who has won more than anyone, including Santiago Bernabéu”, they remember that he used to say for all the titles he won at the helm of the team he always loved.

The Milan that he formed was so great that he won the Ballon d’Or podium for two consecutive years. In 1988 with the Dutch trident Van Basten, Gullit and Rijkaard and the following year again with the scorer as the best in the world, followed by the Italian Franco Baresi and Rijkaard. Van Basten repeated in 92. Golden age for the rossoneros.

“He was like a father,” AC Milan reminds them of the close relationship he always sought with his players. The one who compared Van Basten’s movements with that of the Soviet dancer Nureyev, the one who accompanied Shevchenko when he operated on his father, or simply the one who participated in the particular celebrations of his ‘children’, such as marriages and birthday.

Without Maradona

Few said no to Milan, or to Berlusconi. But there was a player who resisted the offer from the rossoneros and not because he did not want to play at the San Siro, but for emotional reasons. And he could not be other than Diego Armando Maradona.

Silvio Berlusconi looked for Diego after the success he had achieved at Napoli so that his first years at Milan would be with the world champion in his ranks, but there was more than a contract to break, it was the link between Maradona and Naples .

“Maradona was Napoli, he was the symbol of the greatest team in the history of Naples. And icons like him are not bought or moved. It would have been like taking the heart of an entire city and transferring it to Milan,” Berlusconi himself acknowledged about that episode a few months ago, as quoted by “El Gráfico.”

AC Milan was willing to pay whatever Maradona asks for, doubling what he earned at Napoli. And in 1987 he contacted his representative Guillermo Coppola and offered, in addition to the five-year contract with a million-dollar salary, an apartment in the most exclusive area of ​​the city, a luxury car, and having links with the communication company he led. Berlusconi.

In Napoli, the fans found out about Coppola’s meeting with Berlusconi and even planted a bomb on the millionaire businessman’s TV channel. Diego had to appear before the press to resolve the issue. “I will not accept questions. I’m just going to tell you one thing: my friend and manager Guillermo Coppola traveled to Milan to meet with Berlusconi because he has the largest publishing house in Italy and he wants to do a book of mine. This is the last time I allow them to mess with my personal decisions”, was all he said.

Days later, Diego signed his renewal with Napoli for three seasons and with triple the salary of what he had been earning. AC Milan couldn’t take him away, Berlusconi couldn’t have the Argentine star, his biggest obsession to start his project in the Rossoneri team.

After dominating football at the end of the 1990s, the new century brought changes and after the success led by Carlo Ancelotti (Champions 2003 and 2007), the decline came for the rossoneros and Berlusconi decided to sell the club in 2017 to the Chinese consortium Li Yonghong, and with that, Silvio’s 31-year history at the helm of the club came to an end.

This June 12 closed another story, that of Berlusconi himself. Former Prime Minister of Italy, successful businessman and creator of Milan in the 90s, he died at the age of 86 from leukemia at the San Raffaele Hospital in Milan. All the people of Rossoneri still say “Hello President”, while his huge smile appears in the memories.

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