Franco Baresi: Biography, Facts and Career

Franchino Baresi (Italian pronunciation: [ˈfraŋko baˈreːzi; -eːsi]; born 8 May 1960) is an Italian football youth team coach and a former player and manager. He mainly played as a sweeper or as a central defender, and spent his entire 20-year career with Serie A club AC Milan, captaining the club for 15 seasons. Widely regarded as one of the greatest defenders of all time, he was ranked 19th in World Soccer magazine's list of the 100 greatest players of the 20th century. With Milan, he won three European Cup/UEFA Champions League titles, six Serie A trophies, four Supercoppa Italiana titles, two European Super Cups and two Intercontinental Cups, as well as a World Cup with Italy. With the Italy national team, he was a member of the squad that won the 1982 FIFA World Cup, the first in 44 years. He also played in the 1990 World Cup held on home soil, where he was named in the FIFA World Cup All-Star Team, while leading them to a third place in the tournament. At the 1994 World Cup, he was named Italy's captain and was part of the squad that reached the final, although he would miss a penalty in the resulting shoot-out as Brazil lifted the trophy. Baresi also represented Italy at two UEFA European Championships, in 1980 and 1988, and at the 1984 Olympics, reaching the semi-finals on each occasion. The younger brother of former footballer Giuseppe Baresi, after joining the Milan senior team as a youngster, Franco Baresi was initially nicknamed "Piscinin", Milanese for "little one". Due to his skill and success, he was later known as "Kaiser Franz", a reference to fellow sweeper Franz Beckenbauer. In 1999, he was voted Milan's Player of the Century. After his final season at Milan in 1997, the club retired Baresi's shirt number 6. He was named by Pelé one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at the FIFA centenary awards ceremony in 2004. Baresi was inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame in 2013.

Quick facts about Franco Baresi

• Full name: Franco Baresi
• Born: 1960-05-08
• Nationality: Italy
• Known as: Athlete
• Wikidata ID: Q189984

Profile compiled from public Wikipedia and Wikidata data. Details can change over time.