AC Milan

Associazione Calcio Milan

FOUNDED: 1899

Old name: Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club

Manager:  Stefano Pioli

Owner: Elliott Management Corporation (99.93%)

Chairperson: Paolo Scaroni

Captain: Alessio Romagnoli

Nickname: Rossoneri (Red and Blacks)

Home Ground: San Siro

Capacity: 80,000+

Country: Italy

League: Serie A

AC Milan is historically, one of the most successful teams in European football. They are up amongst the giants like Juventus, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Manchester United. The club was founded in 1899 and has spent its entire history in the first division of Italian football baring 2 seasons.

Milan has won the 2nd most Champions League titles in history, after Real Madrid. The Rossoneri have 7 titles to their name. The club has 18 league titles to its name, tied with neighbours – Inter Milan.

The Stadio Giuseppe Meazza (San Siro) is shared with local rivals Inter. The match between the city rivals is called the Derby della Madonnina or Derby di Milano. It is one of the most followed derbies in world football.

History of AC Milan

Founded by 2 British expatriats

A.C. Milan was founded as Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club in 1899 by English expats, Alfred Edwards and Herbert Kilpin. Milan won its first Italian championship in 1901, which was followed by consecutive titles in 1906 and 1907.

In 1908, due to internal disagreements over the signing of foreign players, Inter Milan was formed. AC Milan had issues with signing of international players whereas the founders of Inter wanted to give everyone a fair chance to play if they were good enough, regardless of where they belonged to.

Success 1950 onwards

This rift meant that AC Milan failed to win the Italian title till 1950! The 1950s, however saw a major turnaround in the club’s fortunes. Milan’s Swedish trio known as Gre-No-Li, brought success to the Rossoneri. The trio comprised of Gunnar Gren, Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm.

The 1950s were one of the most successful periods in Milan’s history. They won the Scudetto in 1951, 1955, 1957, 1959 and 1962. The Italian giants won their first European Cup in 1963 when they beat Benfica in the final. 6 years later, they beat Ajax to win the European title again and in between, won its first Coppa Italia in 1967.

The Rossoneri won their 10th league title in 1979, but after legend, Gianni Rivera decided to hang up his boots, Milan went through a rough and dry spell.

Milan’s dry spell and betting scandal

After Gianni Rivera’s retirement, Milan struggled to win. It did not help the club’s cause when it was relegated to the Serie B (second division of Italian football) after several players across 13 clubs and some match officials, were found guilty of taking money for match-fixing, including Italian superstar, Paolo Rossi.

This incident has been called the 1980 Totonero scandal. Milan, however, managed to secure promotion the following season itself by winning the Serie B title, but were relegated again by finishing in the relegation zone in the league. Milan won the Serie B once again in 1983 to return to the 1st division, and this time round, they made sure to stay up, finishing 6th in the 1983-84 season.

Milan – The Immortals and Invincibles

1986 was the start of something incredible for AC Milan and European football. Former Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi acquired Milan to save the club from bankruptcy. Berlusconi appointed Arrigo Sacchi as club manager and a massive investment by the Italian owner meant the signings of the Dutch legend trio of Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard.

This firepower just strengthened an already strong Milan side that featured Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, Roberto Donadoni and Alessandro Costacurta.

Sacchi led Milan to the Scudetto in 1987-88 and the European Cup in 1988-89. The club made it back-to-back European titles when they beat Benfica in 1990. This led to the team being tagged as the “Immortals” and is one of the greatest ever club teams in the history of football.

Arrigo Sacchi decided to quit Milan in 1991 and Fabio Capello took over. Under Capello, Milan went on to win 3 consecutive Serie A titles between 1992-94. The side was unbeaten for 58 games, which led to their nickname of “The Invincibles”. They also made 3 consecutive UEFA Champions League final appearances from 1993-1995!

Capello’s side lost the ’93 final to Marseille but they made sure to win the ’94 final as they crushed Barcelona 4-0 at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece. Fabio Capello’s side won the 1995-96 Scudetto before he left the club to coach Real Madrid.

Carlo Ancelotti at the helm

AC Milan failed to win the title after Capello left till 1998-99, to win their 16th Scudetto. The Rossoneri brought in Carlo Ancelotti in 2001 in hopes of stability.

Ancelotti took Milan to the 2003 Champions League final, where they beat arch-rivals, Juventus on penalties to win their 6th European Cup. Success continued for Ancelotti’s Milan. They won the league in 2003-04 and managed to reach the Champions League final once again the following year, in 2005.

Every football fan knows what happened in the final that night in Istanbul between Liverpool and Milan. AC Milan got their revenge on Liverpool 2 years later as they beat them in the 2007 Champions League final in Athens to win their 7th Champions League crown.

Carlo Ancelotti decided to leave the Italian giants in 2009, after 420 games in charge, which made him the 2nd longest serving manager for the Rossoneri.

Financial problems and Management issues

The Italian club struggled a lot since Carlo Ancelotti departed. They did manage to win the Serie A title in 2010-11, however, after that, it has been a complete dry spell. AC Milan was unable to qualify for the Champions League.

Fininvest, Silvio Berlusconi’s company, was trying to sell its stake but the deal collapsed in 2015. In August 2016, however, a deal was struck and Sino-Europe Sports Investment Management Changxing Co. acquired the club for 99.93% stake. It did not end here, however. In order to finalise the deal, American hedge fund Elliott Management Corporation provided Sino-Europe with a loan of €303M (€180M to complete the payment to Fininvest and €123M issued directly to AC Milan) but the Chinese investment management company failed to make the repayments, which meant that Elliott Management kept the ownership.

Vincenzo Montella failed as Milan manager, which led to the appointment of Milan legend, Gennaro Gattuso. The Italian did a pretty decent job with the squad, missing out on the Champions League by just 1 point in the Serie A but failure to qualify for Europe’s top competition led to him resigning by choice.

Marco Giampaolo then took over management of the Rossoneri but that did not end well either. He was sacked after just 4 months in-charge in 2019. They have now appointed Stefano Pioli who has been good so far for the Rossoneri, and there are hopes of Champions League football for the side again, along with a potential challenge for the Scudetto as well.

Club Records

MOST APPEARANCES: PAOLO MALDINI (902)

TOP GOALSCORER: GUNNAR NORDAHL (221)

SCUDETTO (1ST DIVISION/SERIE A TITLES): 18

COPPA ITALIA: 5

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE TITLES: 7

FIFA CLUB WORLD CUPS: 1

Betting on AC Milan

Odds are in favour of Juventus so worth betting on the Underdogs, Milan

Juventus are hot favourites to win the Serie A, regardless of their form and position. Come the end of the season, they seem to find a way to win.

With the great Cristiano Ronaldo leading the Bianconeri attack, odds for them to win are very low. This would be a great time to bet on the dark horses and Milan is currently, one of those.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s presence has given Milan’s attack a lot of impetus and it is worth betting on them to challenge for the title, and potentially, win the Scudetto.

Aggressive Squad so expect lots of goals

You could truly say Milan is back when you watch them play. AC Milan are now being marked as favourites in almost every game in the Serie A and it is not had to see why.

The club has been one of the best performing teams in the recent past and look to score many goals. It is worth putting your money on +2.5  goals for Milan games when they are playing, regardless of the opposition.

Goals in each half of the game

This is another bet worth considering. AC Milan is capable of scoring goals in abundance and do tend to score goals early on in games to set the tone.

They also risk being caught out on the break given the up-tempo style of football so expect them to concede goals as well at times, even though they have the mammoth Gigi Donnarumma in goal.

Milan have a habit of conceding a goal per game but they also end up scoring 2 or more so this is a great option as there will be favourable odds for it as well.