A.C. Milan

Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons, in the top flight of Italian football, known as Serie A since 1929–30.

AC Milan's 18 FIFA and UEFA trophies is the fourth highest out of any club (joint with Boca Juniors), and the most out of any Italian club. Milan has won a joint record three Intercontinental Cups and one FIFA Club World Cup, seven European Cup/Champions League titles (Italian record), the UEFA Super Cup a joint record five times and the Cup Winners' Cup twice. With 19 league titles, Milan is tied as the second most successful club in Serie A with local rivals Inter Milan (also with 19 league titles), behind Juventus (36 league titles). They have also won the Coppa Italia five times, and the Supercoppa Italiana seven.

Milan's home games are played at San Siro, also known as the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza. The stadium, which was built by Milan's second chairman Piero Pirelli in 1926 and is shared since 1947 with city rivals Internazionale, is the largest in Italian football, with a total capacity of 75,923. They have a long-standing rivalry with Inter, with whom they contest the Derby della Madonnina; it is one of the most followed derbies in football.

The club is one of the wealthiest in Italian and world football. It was a founding member of the now-defunct G-14 group of Europe's leading football clubs as well as its replacement, the European Club Association.

History

Foundation and early years (1899–1950)

AC Milan was founded as ''Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club'' in 1899 by English expatriate Herbert Kilpin. The club claims 16 December of that year as their foundation date, but historical evidence seems to suggest that the club was actually founded a few days earlier, most likely on 13 December. However, with the club's charter being lost, the exact date remains open to debate.

In honour of its English origins, the club has retained the English spelling of the city's name, as opposed to the Italian spelling ''Milano'', which it was forced to bear under the fascist regime. Milan won its first Italian championship in 1901, interrupting a three-year hegemony of Genoa, and a further two in succession in 1906 and 1907. The club proved successful in the first decade of its existence, with several important trophies won, including, among others, the ''Medaglia del Re'' three times, the ''Palla Dapples'' 23 times and the ''FGNI tournament'' five times, a competition organized by the Italian Gymnastics Federation but not officially recognized by the Italian Football Federation.

In 1908, Milan experienced a split caused by internal disagreements over the signing of foreign players, which led to the forming of another Milan-based team, F.C. Internazionale Milano. Following these events, Milan did not manage to win a single domestic title until 1950–51, with some exceptions represented by the 1915-16 ''Coppa Federale'' and the 1917-18 ''Coppa Mauro'', two tournaments played during the First World War which, especially the former, received a lot of attention and proved to be highly competitive, despite them not being officially recognized by the Italian federation.

Return to victory and international affirmation (1950-1970)

The 1950s saw the club return to the top of Italian football, headed by the famous Gre-No-Li Swedish trio Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm. This was one of the club's most successful periods domestically, with the Scudetto going to Milan in 1951, 1955, 1957 and 1959. This decade witnessed also the first European successes of Milan, with the triumphs in the 1951 and 1956 Latin Cup. Milan was also the first Italian club to take part to the newly born European Cup in the 1955-56 season, and reached the final two years later, when they were defeated by Real Madrid.

The 1960s began with the debut of Milan's legend Gianni Rivera in 1960: he will remain with the club for the rest of his career for the following 19 seasons. In 1961, Nereo Rocco was appointed as new coach of the club, which under his leadership won immediately a ''scudetto'' in 1961-62, followed, in the next season, by Milan's first European Cup triumph, achieved after beating Benfica in the final.Video highlights
from official Pathé News archive This success was repeated in 1969, with a 4–1 win over Ajax in the final, which was followed by the Intercontinental Cup title the same year. During this period Milan also won its first Coppa Italia, with victory over Padova in the 1967 final, and two European Cup Winners' Cups: in 1967–68 and 1972–73.

10th ''Scudetto'' and decline (1970-1986)

Domestically, the 1970s were characterized by the pursue of the 10th Serie A title, which grants the winner the ''Scudetto'' star. For three years in a row, in 1971, 1972 and 1973, Milan ended up second in the league, after some memorable duels with Inter and Juventus. Finally, the achievement was reached in 1979. The same year saw the retirement of Gianni Rivera and the debut of Franco Baresi, at his first full season with the club. After this success, the team went into a period of decline. The club in 1980 was involved in the Totonero scandal and as punishment was relegated to Serie B for the first time in its history. The scandal was centred around a betting syndicate paying players and officials to fix the outcome of matches. Milan achieved promotion back to Serie A at the first attempt, winning the 1980–81 Serie B title, but were again relegated a year later as the team ended its 1981–82 campaign in third-last place. In 1983, Milan won the Serie B title for the second time in three seasons to return to Serie A, where they achieved a sixth-place finish in 1983–84.

Berlusconi's ownership and international glory (1986-2012)

On 20 February 1986, entrepreneur Silvio Berlusconi (who owns Fininvest and Mediaset) acquired the club and saved it from bankruptcy after investing vast amounts of money, appointing rising manager Arrigo Sacchi at the helm of the ''Rossoneri'' and signing Dutch internationals Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard. The Dutch trio added an attacking impetus to the team, and complemented the club's Italian internationals Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta and Roberto Donadoni. Under Sacchi, Milan won its first Scudetto in nine years in the 1987–88 season. The following year, the club won its first European Cup in two decades, beating Romanian club Steaua București 4–0 in the final. Milan retained their title with a 1–0 win over Benfica a year later and was the last team to win back-to-back European Cups until Real Madrid's win in 2017. The Milan team of 1988–1990, nicknamed the "Immortals" in the Italian media, has been voted the best club side of all time in a global poll of experts conducted by ''World Soccer'' magazine.

After Sacchi left Milan in 1991, he was replaced by the club's former player Fabio Capello whose team won three consecutive Serie A titles between 1992 and 1994, a spell which included a 58-match unbeaten run in Serie A (which earned the team the label "the Invincibles"), and back-to-back UEFA Champions League final appearances in 1993, 1994 and 1995. A year after losing 1–0 to Marseille in the 1993 Champions League final, Capello's team reached its peak in one of Milan's most memorable matches of all time, the famous 4–0 win over Barcelona in the 1994 Champions League final. Capello's side went on to win the 1995–96 league title before he left to manage Real Madrid in 1996. In 1998–99, after a two-year period of decline, Milan lifted its 16th championship in the club's centenary season.

Milan's next period of success came under another former player,