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\n The 42<\/p>\n
ITALIAN DEFENDER FRANCO Baresi, the captain of AC Milan in the 1980s and 1990s when they won three European Cups and six Italian league titles, has died at the age of 66, the club announced on Friday.<\/p>\n
\u201cMilan is in tears following the passing of Franco Baresi. His example and integrity will be forever etched into the Club\u2019s DNA, just as his iconic number 6 shirt is,\u201d AC Milan, of which Baresi became honorary vice-president in 2020, wrote on X.<\/p>\n
A World Cup winner with Italy in 1982 and a finalist at the 1994 World Cup, Baresi is regarded as one of the greatest sweepers in football history.<\/p>\n
AC Milan did not specify the cause of Baresi\u2019s death.<\/p>\n
He had undergone surgery in August 2025 to remove a lung nodule.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt will take me a little time to get all my strength back,\u201d he said shortly afterwards.<\/p>\n
Born in Lombardy in May 1960, Franchino \u2018Franco\u2019 Baresi joined AC Milan\u2019s youth teams in 1974, before moving up to the first team in 1978 ahead of his 18th birthday.<\/p>\n
He then became a starter at 18 and captain at 22, noticed for his technique, anticipation and tackling skills, as well as his notable leadership qualities.<\/p>\n
Baresi went on to form, alongside Paolo Maldini, Mauro Tassotti and Alessandro Costacurta, a defence feared by every striker in Europe.<\/p>\n
He retired in 1997 after 719 matches with the Rossoneri, a record surpassed only by Maldini.<\/p>\n
In addition to his red and black club jersey, Baresi wore the blue of the Nazionale 81 times.<\/p>\n
But after a World Cup title from the bench in 1982, he did not make the trip to Mexico in 1986 following a disagreement with the national coach.<\/p>\n
Penalty shootouts, in the semi-final of the 1990 World Cup and then in the final in 1994, shattered his hopes of another triumph.<\/p>\n
\u2013 \u00a9 AFP 2026<\/a><\/p>\n Written by AFP and originally published on The 42 whose award-winning team produces original content that you won\u2019t find anywhere else: on GAA, League of Ireland, women\u2019s sport and boxing, as well as our game-changing rugby coverage, all with an Irish eye. Subscribe here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The 42 ITALIAN DEFENDER FRANCO Baresi, the captain of AC Milan in the 1980s and 1990s when they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":576960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[1128,61,60,4356,3405,112],"class_list":["post-576959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports","tag-football","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-rip","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=576959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/576959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/576960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=576959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=576959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=576959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}