{"id":721041,"date":"2026-07-31T14:22:08","date_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:22:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/721041\/"},"modified":"2026-07-31T14:22:08","modified_gmt":"2026-07-31T14:22:08","slug":"franco-baresi-iconic-milan-and-italy-legend-dies-aged-66-milan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/721041\/","title":{"rendered":"Franco Baresi, iconic Milan and Italy legend, dies aged 66 | Milan"},"content":{"rendered":"

The former Milan and Italy<\/a> defender Franco Baresi, one of the most recognisable players of the \u2060golden era of Italian football in the 1980s and 1990s, has died at the age of 66.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe entire history of \u2060AC Milan<\/a> is in \u2060tears following the \u200bpassing of Franco Baresi,\u201d his former club said on Friday. \u201cHis example and integrity will be forever etched into the club\u2019s DNA, just as his iconic No 6 shirt is.\u201d<\/p>\n

Last year Baresi\u2019s former club, where he served as honorary vice-president, said he had undergone surgery to remove a pulmonary nodule, and had \u2060been prescribed recovery treatment by a cancer specialist.<\/p>\n

In February, Baresi was one of the torchbearers for the Olympic \u200bflame at the opening ceremony for the Milano \u200cCortina Winter Games, appearing alongside \u200cformer Inter and Italy defender Giuseppe Bergomi, his longtime rival on the pitch.<\/p>\n

Baresi is regarded as a Milan icon, having spent his entire 20-year career with the club, winning six Serie A titles and three top European trophies, and captaining the team for 15 seasons before retiring in 1997.<\/p>\n

At the end of his playing career, Milan retired his No 6 shirt, making him the first player in the club\u2019s history to receive that honour.<\/p>\n

Baresi and Juventus captain Gianluca Vialli in 1992 in Turin. Photograph: Etsuo Hara\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Baresi was part of the Italy squad that won the \u200c1982 World Cup and captained the team to the 1994 final, which ended in a narrow penalty shootout loss to Brazil, with Baresi among the players who failed to \u200bscore. He famously played the full 120 minutes just 25 days after knee surgery.<\/p>\n

His loyalty to Milan was established early in his career, as he stayed with the club through two relegations to Serie B in the early 1980s and helped guide them back to the top flight on both occasions.<\/p>\n

Baresi was the cornerstone of the Milan and \u2060Italy defences for nearly two decades, captaining the Serie A club during the most \u200bsuccessful period in their history and \u200bearning 81 caps for the national \u200bteam.<\/p>\n

Franco Baresi playing for Italy against Malta during a World Cup qualifier in December 1992. Photograph: Colorsport\/Rex<\/p>\n

In an era dominated by physical defenders, Baresi distinguished himself through his reading of \u200bthe game, redefining the \u200csweeper role by combining \u200bdefensive authority with the \u200bability to launch attacks from deep.<\/p>\n

He marshalled a celebrated Milan backline featuring Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta and Mauro Tassotti, helping perfect the high defensive line and offside trap that underpinned the club\u2019s 58-match unbeaten run in Serie A and earned Fabio Capello\u2019s side the nickname \u201cGli Invincibili\u201d (the Invincibles).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The former Milan and Italy defender Franco Baresi, one of the most recognisable players of the \u2060golden era…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":721042,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[49,50,51,47,52,48],"class_list":["post-721041","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721041","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=721041"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/721041\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/721042"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=721041"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=721041"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=721041"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}