AC Milan's history was written in pages of gold thanks to achievements made by great legends, from Franco Baresi to Paolo Maldini, Marco Van Basten and many more. One of the great players who made a lasting impact is Marcel Desailly.
In fact, we have spoken with the legendary Frenchman, thanks to our collaboration with OLBG.
We'll kick things off with AC Milan, one of your former clubs. And we'd just like to know what was your best memory during your time at the club?
"Wow, there are many things that have happened before I reached AC Milan. Milan was the time where I was at my prime, I think. Where everything went perfect. All the stars were aligned for me to join this team with the 4-4-2 philosophy on the pressing of the opponent. Playing midfielder, where I was a defender normally, things went perfect with the leadership of Maldini, Baresi and many more. It was an absolutely magnificent period for me."
An absolutely magnificent Milan
Looking at Milan today under Allegri, they've gone top of Serie A. How do you rate their performance so far this season and do you think they can win the title this season?
"I would just have to say that we are disappointed because Milan had two magnificent eras. They had the era with Sacchi, with Capello. They had a magnificent time with Ancelotti, for me, the best team ever Milan had on the quality, with the individual quality of the players... You remember Gattuso, Pirlo, Shevchenko, Seedolf…. So it was an absolutely magnificent Milan."
Desailly continued:
"Now we are just kind of hoping that Milan will get to the grade we had before in the past. When Maldini joined, you know, the management of AC Milan, they had that luck, they had that spirit. I think it's like three or four years ago, they won the league. We don't know how they won the league. But you could see that winning mentality that was coming back into the system. Now we are managing. We are hoping. We have good players. Milan have good players. You see, I still say 'we' have... Milan has good players. Maybe the leadership into those players is not enough. So they probably learn around it and you can see that with now the arrival of Rabiot and Modric. Obviously, he brings Milan to another level, plus the others who are supposed to, you know, lift their level. If all together at the same time you try and play your best, then eventually Milan will come back into the system."
Desailly, going back to your time, you shared a dressing room with some of the greatest players who ever played the game, like Maldini and Baresi. What was it like sharing a dressing room with stars like that?
"Oh, the Milan squad! Remember that I won the Champions League with Marseille in 1993 and Milan in our eyes was absolutely magnificent. So the year after when I joined them, it was like in a dream. And in fact, the dream was true. It is a real amazing club. Back in the days, (there) was Silvio Berlusconi who put in place the infrastructure of Milanello, the San Siro stadium was just amazing. And you had at the time the foundation of the Italian spirit. There were national team players for Italy, most of them, like eight National team players who were really, the leaders of the squad of AC Milan. So it was great. It was all about winning. It was all about bringing the performance to the highest."
