Silvio Berlusconi in the middle of AC Milan’s players after beating Liverpool in the Champions League final May 23, 2007 at the Olympic stadium in Athens. LUCA BRUNO / AP
“I’m going down to the field. The words with which Silvio Berlusconi, who died on Monday June 12, 2023, announced his entry into politics in January 1994 are not due to chance. With this sporting metaphor, the then president of the “big” AC Milan wanted to show that the recipes for success that he used in sport can also be applied in politics. Didn’t he bring a football club to the top (this year the Rossoneri would win their fifth Champions League, the third in the Berlusconi era)? Why couldn’t he do the same with the country and bring it to the table of the great nations? Moreover, by naming his party “Forza Italia” (equivalent to “Allez les Bleus” in France), Berlusconi sees another look and wants to build a nation of supporters. The political results will be much more mixed than in football.
Back in 1995, in the columns of Le Monde diplomatique, Manuel Vazquez Montalban, a Catalan football and politics buff, wondered: “Would Silvio Berlusconi have managed to lead the government of Italy without the help of football club AC Milan?” and his legendary players Van Basten , Gullit, Rijkaard…? (…) Back then, when Berlusconi was elected, the young people chose above all the “winner” of the economy and the strategist of AC Milan’s glorious victories. »
Because when it comes to attacking power, Milan native Berlusconi is of course known as a media man and entrepreneur, yet Italians identify him above all as the one who makes Italian football shine in the world. ‘foreign. He had been president of AC Milan since 1986 and took over the ball when the Lombard side were on the verge of bankruptcy.
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Playing the substitutes is out of the question for him. Admittedly, AC Milan already had a great history when they came to the helm of the club. But that didn’t stop the then 50-year-old television and real estate mogul from making his mark, playing the modernist card and transforming the club profoundly. He invested billions of lire in the infrastructure – Milanello, the training center, became the model of modernity – and in recruitment.
He confirms Franco Baresi as a cornerstone of the team and is fully committed. Even before the Bosman ruling, which liberalized player transfers in Europe in 1995, Berlusconi and “his” Milan brought in the Dutchmen Ruud Gullit, Marco Van Basten and Frank Rijkaard. Other personalities also appeared at the same time: Paolo Maldini, Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto Donadoni, Alessandro Costacurta and Demetrio Albertini.
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