With a brief press conference on 17 August 1995, Marco van Basten announced his farewell to football. At the age of just 30, he closed a career enriched by successes and tormented by four surgeries on his ankles. The day after, the moving farewell at San Siro with a tour of the pitch
The reindeer jacket it seemed perhaps exaggerated for a mid-August evening, but at that moment it was one of the last things San Siro paid attention to. She entered the myth later, when she had already been placed in the wardrobe, by dint of reviewing the images to try to metabolize, capture every detail to convince herself that it had really happened: Mark van Basten he had said goodbye to the Milan fans forever. Jeans, pink shirt, reindeer jacket: he goes down on the lawn like this, and the stadium stands up for him. Clothing doesn’t lie: he said enough.
“The news is short”
The day before, the August 17, 1995had bid farewell to football with a specially organized press conference at the Milan headquarters, at the time in via Turati. Sharp as one of his corner diagonals, he hadn’t gotten around too much. “The news I have to give you is short. Simply I have decided to quit playing football. Thanks to all of you”.
No doodles, straight to the point as when he saw the door. On the field as in life, taught Nereo Rocco. Behind him, in the trophy room, a glitter of cups. When he had entered that room for the first time, 8 years ago, having just arrived from Ajax, there were half of them.
Due to?
No injuries, a trial without culpritsif not fate that wanted to make fun of one of the most complete and elegant center forwards ever seen on a football field, denying him the perfect functionality of the tools of the trade throughout his career: damned ankle dancersweakened by a congenital cartilage defect which has been a mystery to doctors around the world.
Four surgeries, the first when he was still playing in the Netherlands. Three months off at the beginning of 1987 and triumphant return with the decisive goal in the final which gave the Cup Winners’ Cup to Ajax. In the summer of that year he moved to Milan, he played 5 league games (with a goal on his debut) and then another stop. Under the knife again, he will return 6 months later with Milan in full fight for the Scudetto with Napoli. He plays another 6 games in all, with two goals: the jewel against Empoli, on his return, but above all the decisive one in the direct clash at the San Paoloin which the Rossoneri effectively conquered the Scudetto by winning 3-2.
The last one is a lost final
In the following seasons Van Basten lives with pain, and one only wonders what would have been if we had it 100%: he takes Milan to the top of the world, and while the cup room in via Turati fills up, he collects Golden Balls at home (1988, 1989, 1992).
The day after the delivery of the third, he decides to have surgery for the third time, in St Moritz. “Cleaning” of the ankle: that’s what it’s called, it means another two or three months stopped which between one hitch and the next become more than four. From that moment on he will play 4 more games: against Udinese, taking over from the bench, Ancona (with a goal against Nista, the same goalkeeper he had beaten on his debut in Serie A in 1987, against Pisa), Roma. Then Capello decides to keep it at rest until the day of the final of the Champions Cup against Olympique Marseille, the one that will be decided by Bolì’s goal. On the evening of May 26, 1993 Van Basten knows very well that he’s not at his best but he grits his teeth, resists until 5′ from the end, then leaves the field. He still he doesn’t know, but played his last football match.
The cartilage donor
In June 1993, the fourth intervention: followed by two years spent in an attempt to become a football player again. Now disheartened, Van Basten tries everything: targeted therapies, acupuncture, even goes to a magician. There is also a fan who offers himself as a cartilage donor for his idol. No one is resigned to the idea of never being able to see him again on the field, but the harsh reality of the facts is that Van Basten is limping, the ankle opened and closed by many, too many hands, is now compromised and the more recovery times get longer, continuously postponing the return date, the more clear it is that it’s over.
“I look bad”
In the summer of 1995 he joins the group again for training: at Milan Roberto Baggio and Weah have arrived, it would be a dream trident. After a week of training, however, the pain is unbearable. He flies to Belgium for a consultation with Dr. Martens, who explains the situation and advises him to stop. Van Basten is 30 years old, he played his last game at 28.
August 17, in the hall of cups, is the most serene of all: in that room he is the only one who has accepted his fate, he speaks as if he were to console the others. He reassures the audience of journalists that Milan will continue to win (“Football continues, Milan certainly does not end with me. Here are Baggio, Savicevic, Weah, Maldini and Baresi, Milan will always put on a show”), he is eager to see the Rossoneri number 9 shirt still on the pitch (“Retire it? I don’t deserve this thing. Now it’s right that Weah wear it”), he dispenses wisdom and humility (“When a player stops, he always gets better. But I’ve played many bad games, I missed sensational goals. Now you tell me that I was the greatest but the truth is that I was part of a stuffed team of champions”), makes an appointment for the next day, when his tour of the pitch is already scheduled at San Siro to give farewell to the fansduring the traditional Berlusconi Trophy: “I hope I’m not moved. I look bad when I cry”. Nothing to do, the tears will win.
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1970-01-01 00:00:00
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