Silvio Berlusconi, former AC Milan president, dies aged 86

Former Italy prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, who won five UEFA European Cup/Champions League titles as president of AC Milan from 1986 to 2001, died on Monday.

Greatest teams in European football history

After rising to prominence in the 1980s as the founder of Mediaset, Italy’s largest commercial broadcaster, Berlusconi purchased AC Milan in 1986, famously stepping out of a helicopter on to the San Siro turf for his first home match as owner.

Over the next four decades, Berlusconi’s leadership masterminded the creation of some of the greatest teams in Italian and European football history.

Of these, perhaps the first remains the most memorable – not just for the skills of its three iconic Dutch players Ruud Gullit, Frank Rijkaard and Marco Van Basten, but for the speed with which Berlusconi transformed his new club’s fortunes.

Kick-starting a revolution

At the time, Milan were struggling to re-establish themselves after being relegated to Serie B in 1980 and had not won the scudetto for 20 years. The new owner kick-started a revolutionby appointing the then little known third division coach Arrigo Sacchi to restore the club to past glories.

It was an inspirational choice. Playing a new attacking brand of football and zonal defence that was the antithesis of catanaccio, Milan overhauled Maradona’s Napoli to claim the 1987/88 Serie A title. The first European Cup of the Berlusconi era quickly followed with a signature 4-0 victory over Steaua Bucharest at the Nou Camp in 1989.

A second European title 12 months later confirmed Milan’s status as the continent’s pre-eminent footballing force – a remarkable four years after Berlusconi’s landing at the San Siro.

Building on success

After Sacchi’s departure to coach the national team, Berlusconi charged Fabio Capello with building on his success. The arch tactician duly delivered.

With the addition of Croatia’s Zvonimir Boban and Montenegrin Dejan Savićević, Milan won four Serie A titles in five years together with a third European Cup – a resounding 4-0 triumph over Johann Cruyff’s Barcelona in Athens.

With Capello’s departure and the retirement of all-time greats including captain Franco Baresi, Milan won just one more title in the nineties, before Berlusconi launched a new wave of success by placing Carlo Ancelotti on the San Siro bench.

Reinforced with the talents of Andriy Shevchenko, Kaká and Andrea Pirlo, two Champions League titles followed with a penalty shoot-out victory over Juventus in 2001 and a 3-0 defeat of Liverpool in 2007 – revenge for the ‘Miracle of Istanbul’ two years earlier.

End of an era

Berlusconi’s final decade as president was also Milan’s leanest with a final title – the Italian Super Cup – secured in 2016.In April 2017, Berlusconi sold the club to a Chinese-led consortium after adding a total of 29 cups in 31 years to Milan’s trophy cabinet.

Berlusconi never lost his passion for the game. In his final years, he helped to finance northern Italian club AC Monza’s ascent from Serie C to Serie A. As recently as February, the former Milan owner was on record as targeting a scudetto "in the next year or the year after."