[vnata001]

Most of my friends are either sh*t eating Inter, Man U, Liverpool, Real Madrid, Chelsea fans. OR, they are tolerable, and support clubs that I appreciate: Arsenal, Juve, and (don't slaughter me, I do respect them for their playing style and youth system) Barcelona.

Somehow, I only have ONE other friend who supports AC Milan with me.

Now, I know, this doesn't really have any direct relevance to the upcoming season. BUT, I LOVE to engage my footy-friends in mental flossing exercises about their teams and personal fanhood, and thought I'd at least attempt the same here, so here goes:

Out of ALL the players that you can say you have LEGITIMATELY watched, while being a fervent supporter of the team, what would your personal favorite starting XI be. And if there is some contention for a couple spots, explain them (for the sake of conversation!) Maybe state the year (optional: your age) you considered yourself an official milanista?

Since for most of the last decade I've been one of the only ones ever answering on behalf of our AC Milan, it'd be great to hear from the forum what your favorite XIs would be and why. At the very least, it'd be a cool way for me (who I consider to be one of the younger milan supporters in this forum) to learn a little bit more about the clubs recent players.

Now before I give mine, disclaimer: Trust me, I've heard all about our 89/90/91 teams. I've read about them, watched them, and am in true awe of the team we had assembled back then. But, if I am to be honest to the question I asked, and answer based only on the players I have watched while being a fervent supporter, then i must qualify:

I can only really say I've been a supporter of the team since 2002. I was a fan of the sport from childhood, watched World Cup 94 - fell for Brazil and Italy, naturally. Favorite players were Romario, Baggio, and Maldini. In 95, without ever having seen a Milan match before, when I had read that Baggio and Maldini were on a team together named AC Milan, I became a fan without even having ever seen them play. Since then, they've always been my favorite team, however after World Cup 2002 two things happened. 1) My family subscribed to Fox Sports World (the only way we could get coverage of European Soccer here in the US and 2) AC Milan signed Kaka (a young Brazilian who I pinned my hopes on to be a flag bearer - you may wonder why I'm a fan boy). I guess this is the way it worked out for me considering my age, and access to European leagues. The rest is history, therefore my answer is a simple one.

Our 04/05 starting XI. Watching this team gave me an heir of arrogance, a superiority complex almost. At the time, I thought it was IMPOSSIBLE for a team to EVER be constructed better. There may have been differences in ages and stages of careers, but one thing was undeniable: EVERY PLAYER in our first eleven was world class, undisputed.

Dida. Cafu. Stam. Nesta. Maldini. Rino. Pirlo. Seedorf. Ricky. Sheva. Crespo.

your turn.

This post has been edited by vnata001: Aug 20 2010, 08:21 PM

[m1ke]

^^ Good post.

My dad was never really into football, and neither were my friends at school so I didn't really get interested in the sport until I was about 8. Then, in 1992 Channel 4 started airing a program on Sunday afternoon called 'Football Italia'. They used to show live Serie A games every week.

English football was going through a dark period at the time, so being able to watch games from the Italian league (which was probably the strongest in the world) was pretty exciting. Gazza had just moved from Spurs to Lazio, and I'd say I was officially a 'supporter' after watching the Milan-Lazio game (Milan won 5:3, 2 pens from MVB (IMG:style_emoticons/default/king.gif) )

I guess it was a combination of everything - the players, the stadium, the style of play - even the kit. I got my first Milan shirt on my 9th birthday (with the 'Motta' sponsor) - and used to wear it everywhere.

Milan won the league that year, and I've followed them ever since. I didn't get to see a game in person until 1995, when Milan came to London to play Arsenal in the European Super Cup final. I sat in the Arsenal family section (still wearing my Milan shirt (IMG:style_emoticons/default/biggrin.gif) ) with my Dad - and still remember the game like it was yesterday.

I'm still gutted that I never got to see MVB play live - he'd retired by the time Milan came to London (IMG:style_emoticons/default/sad.gif) He's probably my favourite player of all time.

Anyway - to answer your question, I'd probably go with:

Rossi
Tassotti (Cafu) Baresi Nesta (Costacurta) Maldini
Pirlo (Albertini) Kaka (Savicevic) Rui (Boban)
MVB Shevchenko Inzaghi (Weah)

Players in brackets are close second!