Franco Baresi, AC Milan and Italian football legend, dies at 66

The art of defending: farewell to Franco Baresi

Close your eyes and picture Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan: a back line with Costacurta, Tassotti, Maldini and Baresi. Four towers, except for one: the small one, 1.75 metres tall on a pitch of giants. That man was Franco Baresi, who died this Friday, 31 July, at the age of 66 after several days battling serious health problems.

The smallest of the defence, the smartest on the pitch

The image sums up his football: while the bodies imposed themselves, he read the game. Maradona, never one for praise, said it was a nightmare to play against Baresi, that the defender already knew what he was going to do before Maradona himself knew. Anticipation, intelligence and a firm leg: defending as a display of talent.
Baresi made his AC Milan debut as a teenager and never wore another shirt. Two decades later he was still there, with the number 6 on his back, captain of a team that defined an era. He played in a World Cup final fresh out of surgery, a detail that says everything about his character.

A football fading away under shadows

The news has triggered a wave of reactions, and not all of them are pure praise. Some point out that that fabulous Milan side did not shine through football alone, and that the life expectancy of Italian footballers from that generation is starting to look statistically uncomfortable. He is not the first to die before 70, and he will not be the last, some readings suggest.
Doping suspicions hang over that era, and now they intersect with respect for the player. You can be a legend and, at the same time, leave questions unanswered. Baresi's story cannot be told without Milan's, and the story of Sacchi's Milan cannot be told without its shadows.

The statistic that unsettles: the 1.75-metre kid who shared a defence with 1.85-metre towers was the one in charge. Football's art of anticipation has lost its finest teacher.