Berlusconi and Milan, the revolution of an arch-Italian

On a not yet hot enough June 12th Italy is dividedagain, in the final assessment of the life and work of the cave Silvio Berlusconi. The beatification has already begun in a curve, Silvio Saint immediatelywhile on the other hand they continue to denounce to cheers the misdeeds, true and conjectural, of the former tenant of Villa San Martino. For better or worse, an era when we were born and raised by children is coming to an end Berlusconi he was born Berlusconi. With his televisions Knight He put an end to the gloomy climate of the leadership years by sprinkling it on Italy Sequins and bright colors. In 1994 it finally found its way into Italian houses and became an absolute icon.

Of the “Allow me” for the Bunga BungaL’knight epic has become part of our country’s narrative, with its catchphrases and its characters: fixers, whores, managers, journalists and newsagents. An epic with an American flair self made man starting from the buildings in the Isola district, but with a typically Italian protagonist archital.

“Berlusconi must have been born a wandering embrace of Jupiter“.

Gianni Brera

Berlusconi embodied it Strengths and weaknesses of Italians: love for women, elegance, charming charisma, optimism; but also the pretentiousness, the mischievous cunning, the inappropriate exuberance, and the absence of moral scruples. He also inherited the greatest passion from the Italians, namely for football.

“All things I deal with are profane; but Milan is sacred“.

Silvio Berlusconi

A passion that begins from afar, from the dribbling imitation of Richard caramel harvest and networks of fireman Gunnar north hall. A passion but with many colors nerazzurri, a detail that Berlusconi has carefully omitted during his footballing life but was revealed by his former Edilnord player Giovanni Ticozzi. A passion that even led him to it try to buyInter in the early 80s, the rest is history. Who knows what Inter would have been like Berlusconiand what would have become of Milan.

The KnightNickname for another, coined by John Brerareaches out to Milan in the winter of 1986 after a disastrous five-year period marked by two relegations to Serie B. The music changes immediately and the new symphony of the Devil and the Valkyrie Ride From Wagner, with which, in the summer of 1986, Berlusconi, Liedholm and the entire Milan team stormed into the Milan Arena aboard three helicopters. The song of Apocalypse Nowof superman nietzchean Berlusconideclares war on Italian football and stands a Rossonero Superman Come to save Lucifer, the beautiful fallen angel from the underworld to bring him back to heaven.

It’s the beginning of one revolution on and off the field. Today’s football football showthe football the sheiks he is the son of this day. With a visionary lead Silvio Berlusconi He turned his AC Milan into a brand, his players into ambassadors who increasingly paid attention to his image. He then came up with the idea of ​​numbering the seats in the San Siro: “We are checking a computerized ticket for booking long-distance games as well. Over 2,000 Milan fans registered by phone this year.” He said in 1986, madness compared to the time.

The revolution also passed Milanellowhat below Berlusconi has become an avant-garde model for sports centers in Italy and beyond: one of the first to have gyms, swimming pools and relaxation centers.

But the indelible sign The knight left it on Field. Berlusconi is one of the most successful presidents in football history. 29 trophies, just like his role model Santiago Bernabeu. But the arch-Italian didn’t just want to dominate, he wanted to conquer and reform. His AC Milan, led by Arrigo Sacchi, imported the pods of the total football theorized in Holland by Rinus Michels almost twenty years earlier and elevated to its most sublime form. Sacchis Milan embodied the aesthetic of the game transferred to the result, winning two Champions League titles in two years and enchanting the world. On a path then continued and adapted by Capello and Ancelotti.

The recent Champions Leagues, Guardiola’s City and Ancelotti’s Real Madrid, are both the result of Berlusconi’s and Sacchi’s Milan in one way or another.

“The sports reports are about Sacchi’s Milan, Zaccheroni and Ancelotti, never about Berlusconi’s Milan. And yet it’s me who has been shaping formations, dictating the rules and buying players for 18 years. It feels like I don’t exist.

He was president certainly circumstantial and intrusive, but with visionary intuitions. Arrigo Sacchi was 100% his product, from Parma in B, with no experience as a footballer and very little as a coach, defending to the sword to the point of success. Then celebrate his speeches in the dressing room and the tactical obsessions he tried to impose on his coaches, such as that of attacking midfielder. Settings that are in the last decadent phase of his Milan along with Tendency to showmanshipled to grotesque results, see la haka New Zealanders in semi-abandoned San Siro or the famous video “Attack!” with Pippo Inzaghi as a co-star against his will.

Berlusconi served football, and football has served thanks to publicity Knight In fact, it built the image and consensus among the population that would later pave the way for deployment on the ground. The sober Savoyard elegance of Juve and theLawyer were against the boldness of Knight and his Milan, in the conflict between the new and the old Italian nobility of the 20th century. So ended Berlusconi’s season between light and shadow, Who knows if Berlusconi’s season will end today?not sure in football.