14 of the best quotes on the legendary Franco Baresi: ‘The Johan Cruyff of defenders’ | OneFootball

AC Milan icon Franco Baresi has sadly passed away at the age of 66.

The legendary defender, widely regarded as one of the greatest centre-backs in football history, spent his entire 20-year career with the Rossoneri. He won six Serie A titles and three European Cups with his club and was part of the Italy squad that won the 1982 World Cup.

Tributes have poured in from across the football world. We’ve taken a look back at some of the greatest quotes about Baresi from the managers, team-mates and opponents who witnessed his greatness first-hand.

Romario

The Brazilian forward won the Golden Ball and was a force of nature at USA 94, but a 34-year-old Baresi – returning from a severe meniscus tear just 24 days prior – completely locked him down in the final.

Unfortunately, it wasn’t to be for the legendary defender, who missed Italy’s first spot-kick in the shootout defeat following the goalless draw.

“I’m very sorry to hear that, and I wish him a speedy recovery. May God protect him, his family, and his health,” Romario said after news of Baresi’s health struggles emerged.

“He was the toughest player I ever played against. I don’t know if he was the absolute best, but certainly the most difficult to face.”

Arrigo Sacchi

“I was fortunate to find a defence that was already very strong, with some key players,” the great Milan manager said of Baresi.

“Franco was an example to everyone, a serious man who gave his all. Great players are those who play with and for the team, like he did. If I remember correctly, he even played in a derby with a broken hand.

“That AC Milan team was the strongest team of all time, not one of the strongest. I chose the right players to play the best football. Berlusconi told me we had to become the best team in the world, and we achieved that.”

Ruud Gullit

“A leader at the back, very strong and quick, with an excellent understanding of the game. As a defender, he could do everything. A lot of the time, he would know what the attacker was going to do before they knew themselves! How do you get past someone like that?”

Ronald Koeman

“Baresi was quality on the ball, and like all great Italian centre-halves he was hard and would stop at nothing to win the ball. Oddly, he was in his late 20s before he got the recognition he deserved, and by then, he was the world’s best defender.”

Marcel Desailly

“What more words are there to describe this man?” Desailly told FourFourTwo, picking Baresi in his perfect XI.

“Simply the best defender of the last three decades, and the last great libero. He always seemed to know in advance where the ball would go and there was no centre-forward on the planet who was capable of surprising him. He also had very good technique when it came to playing the ball, and when he attacked, he was always dangerous. A real icon.”

Tony Adams

“Baresi wasn’t as physically strong as you might expect a central defender to be – he would generally play as sweeper – but he was so good you would just watch him dictate the pace of the game. He read the game better than any defender I’ve ever seen, and I think that’s what makes him stand out as one of the best central defenders of all time.”

Laurent Blanc

“In those great AC Milan sides of the late ’80s and early ’90s he was the boss. Every man who played with or against him knew he was the boss. Everybody respected him. He was a very intelligent player, and always calm. I loved that ability to look so relaxed. Nothing ever troubled Baresi; he would deal with problems with no fuss at all.”

Zico

“The consummate libero, capable of doing whatever he wanted with the ball whether he was defending or attacking. He had great positional sense and with his speed, he could bring the defence out quickly and launch an attack. And that was always half a goal in itself.”

Ray Wilkins

“Franco was the best player I have ever played with. The guy was world class to his core. He had everything… And he was a leader of men.”

Paolo Maldini

This loss was always going to be keenly felt by Maldini, who lined up alongside Baresi over 450 times for club and country.

“Hi Franco. Today I feel the same way I did whenever, for any reason, you couldn’t take the field alongside us. How will we go on without you, Captain?” Maldini wrote in a beautiful tribute on Instagram.

“You taught me to fight until my very last breath, what it means to have a true bond with the shirt you wear, and the value of being a real leader. You taught me all of this through your example, every single day. Few words, but countless actions.

“You protected me when I was a child, guided me as a young man, and inspired me as an adult. You were the greatest footballer I have ever had the honour of playing alongside.

“My warmest embrace goes to your entire family, especially your wife Maura and your children, Edoardo and Giannandrea.

“We will miss you, Captain. But the light of your star will continue to guide us forever.”

Marco Van Basten

“The Johan Cruyff of the defenders. He led the Rossoneri backline in a great and elegant way. He was calm and shy, but on the pitch he was a warrior and a winner.

“He was agile and quick in small spaces, ruthless if necessary. His hunger to win and quest for victory were unique. He was also very gifted with the ball, a very skilled and intuitive added value.”

One of sixty brilliant tributes published on AC Milan’s website for Baresi’s 60th birthday. Well worth a read.

Jamie Carragher

Listen to any of Carragher’s punditry and insight into great defending, and the chances are he’ll invoke the name of his biggest inspiration.

“The AC Milan team that he produced and then passed on was in most people’s eyes one of if not the greatest club side we’ve seen in modern times,” the former Liverpool defender said, speaking on The Overlap’s ‘It Was What It Was’ podcast.

“And every great coach or manager of the last 15-20 years, whenever you ask them who their idol was or who was their inspiration, Sacchi is normally at the top of that list.

“If you asked me my favourite player of all time I’d say Franco Baresi because of basically the hold he had on that team and the organisation, the concentration levels that would have been needed to organise that team on the pitch.”

Diego Maradona

“When I arrived in Italy everyone was afraid to face him,” Maradona wrote in his book, recalling facing Baresi.

“In one of our matches we played against Juventus and Platini said to me, ‘You newbie, you like dribbling more than passing. We will see what you will do when you face Franco Baresi.’

“I said, ‘Baresi? Who is Baresi!! I will teach him a lesson’. He says after two months we played against Milan in the San Siro and I dribbled past Ancelotti and knocked him down and it seemed easy to me and I thought I would score the goal easily and suddenly someone pounced on me from behind and steals the ball from in front of me with elegance without me noticing and took the ball from me I said “who is this player number 6?”

“He passed the ball to Tassotti and said to Ancelotti, who was on the ground ‘leave him to me I will take care of it’… This was Franco Baresi, who terrifies attackers.

“I realised that I was facing an exceptional defender. Claudio Gentile used to hit me to stop me, as for Baresi, he used to snatch it from between my legs without touching me.

“After the end of one of the matches I asked for his shirt and I wore it in the middle of the San Paolo stadium as a kind of respect and appreciation for the best defender I have faced in my career in football and that’s enough.”

Franco Baresi

“Physically, I was not a giant,” says the man himself, reflecting on his playing style in his memoir.

“And that limited me when playing man-to-man. I made up for it by being aggressive, anticipating what my opponent was going to do and then moving into tight spaces at maximum speed.

“These were all trademarks of Liedholm’s system in which I went from being an old-school libero — a player detached from the rest of the defensive line by a few metres, acting as cover — to a centre-back in line with the rest of the defence, participating more actively in our attacks.”