History of AC Milan

Two of the most critical players in this decade were the Belgian forward Louis Van Hege, who scored 97 goals in 88 official matches, and the defender Renzo De Vecchi, nicknamed il figlio di Dio (the son of God).

Milan was also the first Italian club to take part to the newly born European Cup in the 1955-56 season, and reached the final two years later, when they were defeated by Real Madrid.

The following season, in large part due to Altafini's prolific goal-scoring, Milan won their first European Cup (later known as UEFA Champion League) by defeating Portugal's Benfica 2–1.

He brought in rising coach Arrigo Sacchi, three Dutch players (Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit), and the Italian internationals Roberto Donadoni, Carlo Ancelotti, Giovanni Galli and Paolo Maldini in the attempt to return the team to glory,

Their European-winning line-up were: Giovanni Galli; Mauro Tassotti, Alessandro Costacurta, Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini; Angelo Colombo, Frank Rijkaard, Carlo Ancelotti, Roberto Donadoni; Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten.

[13] With Sacchi leaving Milan in 1991 to coach the Italy national team, Fabio Capello was hired and under him, the Rossoneri kept being successful and came to be known as Gli Invicibili ("The Invincibles").

With an unprecedented 58-match run with no defeats, the Invincibili boasted the likes of Mauro Tassotti, Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta and Paolo Maldini as one of the strongest defenses in football history, along with Marcel Desailly and Roberto Donadoni in midfield and Dejan Savićević, Zvonimir Boban and Daniele Massaro in attack.

The winning line-up was: Christian Abbiati; Luigi Sala, Alessandro Costacurta, Paolo Maldini; Thomas Helveg, Demetrio Albertini, Massimo Ambrosini, Andres Guglielminpietro; Zvonimir Boban, George Weah, Oliver Bierhoff.

Milan started the Champions League on a high note, defeating Beşiktaş from Turkey and Spanish giants Barcelona, who at the time consisted of international world-class superstars in Rivaldo and Patrick Kluivert.

After this peak of form, however, Milan started losing again, including a disappointing 1–0 defeat to Vicenza, with the only goal in the match scored by a young Luca Toni.

Milan began the 2001–02 campaign signing more star players, including Javi Moreno and Cosmin Contra, who both helped Alavés reach the 2001 UEFA Cup final.

The team also signed Kakha Kaladze (from Dynamo Kyiv), Rui Costa (from Fiorentina), Filippo Inzaghi (from Juventus), Martin Laursen (from Hellas Verona), Jon Dahl Tomasson (from Feyenoord), Ümit Davala (from Galatasaray) and Andrea Pirlo (from rivals Inter).

Despite the injury problems of full-back Paolo Maldini, Ancelotti was successful and led Milan to a fourth-place finish, thus earning a place in the Champions League.

Milan's starting line at that point was Christian Abbiati; Cosmin Contra, Alessandro Costacurta, Martin Laursen, Kakha Kaladze; Gennaro Gattuso, Demetrio Albertini, Serginho; Rui Costa; Andriy Shevchenko, Filippo Inzaghi.

Milan set a points record to win the Scudetto with a team that was largely kept constant for nearly five years—an attack spearheaded by striker Andriy Shevchenko, playmaking by Kaká and defence by Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini.

Hernán Crespo, on loan from Chelsea, proved to be a solid acquisition for Milan, while midfielder Massimo Ambrosini scored an incredible late goal against PSV.

After a lackluster first half of the season that saw Milan hover in the middle of the standings, several January transfer acquisitions, including World Cup winner Massimo Oddo and Brazilian legend Ronaldo, reinvigorated the club.

Milan survived a first round fight, defeating Celtic (eventual champions of that year's Scottish Premier League) 1–0 on aggregate after an extra time goal by Kaká.

By the end of the domestic campaign, Fiorentina edged Milan out for fourth place in the standings, knocking them out of qualification for the 2008–09 Champions League, the team's first failure to reach the tournament since 2001–02.

They also later added international sensation David Beckham during the January transfer window on loan from the LA Galaxy of Major League Soccer (MLS).

The team bounced back, however, rising to first spot in the table for one week in the first half of the season before later dropping behind rivals Inter, who would go on to win their fourth-straight Serie A championship.

Perhaps the most notable aspect of the 2008–09 season was the retirement of footballing legend Paolo Maldini, who played all of his professional club games for Milan in a career that spanned 25 years.

Following a mixed start to the season (including a 4–0 win against Lecce, draws against Catania and Lazio, and a loss to Cesena), Milan began performing well and soon reached the top of the Serie A table from November onwards.

The defensive partnership of Alessandro Nesta and Thiago Silva in front of goalkeeper Christian Abbiati also gave Milan one of Serie A's top defences.

By the end of 2010, and the beginning of 2011, Milan had faced an injury crisis that had seen players Andrea Pirlo, Massimo Ambrosini, Filippo Inzaghi, Gianluca Zambrotta, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Daniele Bonera, Luca Antonini, Alexandre Pato and Alessandro Nesta all injured.

The team would then be enforced during the winter transfer period with the signings of Antonio Cassano, Mark van Bommel, Urby Emanuelson, Dídac Vilà and Nicola Legrottaglie.

Convincing wins over Lazio (3–1) and Parma (5–4) at the beginning of the season seemed to display a change in performance, as Milan sat top of Serie A heading into October 2014.

A string of embarrassing results, such as a 3–3 draw at home with lowly Frosinone (in which they had to fight back from 3–1 down) and failure to overcome relegation-threatened Hellas Verona, saw the sacking of Mihajlović as coach and the appointment of Cristian Brocchi for the remainder of the season.

The team during the summer saw numerous changes to the roster, especially with the arrival of promising players such as Franck Kessié, Théo Hernandez, Rafael Leão, Ismaël Bennacer and 2018 World Cup finalist Ante Rebić (on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt).

Meanwhile, the team qualified for the 2020–21 UEFA Europa League via two victories in the qualification rounds, one of which was against Norwegian side Bodø-Glimt which saw Milan purchase Bodø-Glimt player Jens Petter Hauge shortly after the match after Hague's performance against the Rossoneri impressed the team's upper management, and a 9-8 penalty victory in a playoff round match against Rio Ave.