THE STORY OF AC MILAN EMBODIED IN HIS FACE

Even the air at San Siro stepped aside that afternoon. Franco Baresi was making his home debut in an AC Milan shirt from the first minute, cutting through everything: fans, stands, opponents. It was September 1978, AC Milan 1-0 Avellino, Buriani scoring ten minutes from the end and Piscinin running straight over to embrace him - matchday one of the campaign that would deliver the tenth Scudetto, the Star. He wore a different number, 6, but that day only the present mattered.

He would have another twenty years to turn everything about himself into History. That elegant stride, that way of carrying the ball forward, so soft, so commanding. He looked as though he had been playing for a lifetime; in reality, he was only just beginning. Franco Baresi never needed to "claim" AC Milan for himself. AC Milan was the Rossonero blanket of his life, the one he wrapped himself in and wrapped us in. Don't be angry, Franco, but we would never have gone to Serie B without your long absence in those months between late 1981 and early 1982.