10 greatest Italian defenders of the last 50 years

#3 Franco Baresi

Franco Baresi of AC Milan and Maurizio Ganz of Inter Milan

Another one-club man, Franco Baresi made his AC Milan debut in 1977 and went on to spend the next hugely successful 20 years at his beloved hometown club.

He started his career with the Milan youth team but had a chance to join Inter professionally with the club rejecting him, choosing his brother Guisseppe instead, Baresi then joined Milan and became one of the greatest players in the history of the game.

'Kaizer Franz' (in reference to legendary sweeper Franz Beckenbauer) was appointed club captain in 1982 aged just 22 and led the club during a dark period in its history which yielded little success on the pitch and involved two relegations to Serie B (once in 1980 for match-fixing and another in 1983 after a poor league performance).

Despite being a prominent member of the Italian national team, Baresi chose to stay with the club despite their relegations, and his loyalty was soon rewarded as Milan became a global force towards the end of the 1980s and beginning of the 1990s.

Franco Baresi was at the heart of the defence in Milan's all-conquering team of this period, forming notable partnerships with all-Italian defenders which included Mauro Tasotti, Christian Panucci, Alessandro Costacurta and a young Paulo Maldini. This Milan side went on to dominate Europe and the rest of the world under Ariggo Sacchi and later Fabio Capello.

Under his defensive guidance and captainship, Milan had a rock solid defence, winning the 1988 Serie A title, conceding just 14 goals. He was also instrumental as the club won three consecutive Scudetti and Super Coppa Italia between 1992 and 1994 (winning the 1992 Serie A title undefeated in an eventual Italian league record run of 58 consecutive games unbeaten).

They also won consecutive European Cups in 1989 and 1990 (the last club to do so until Real Madrid in 2017) and participated in three consecutive Champions League finals between 1993 and 1994, winning the 1994 tournament.

Despite not being the tallest of players (standing at just 5 feet and 9 inches), Baresi was an extremely imposing and physical defender. Adept at man-marking and interceptions, he was primarily a centre-back, although his brilliant reading of the game and accurate passing meant he was also deployed as a sweeper. His vision and ability to play out from the back sometimes saw Baresi pushed up into midfield to initiate attacks.

He retired from Milan at the end of the 1996-1997 season, having amassed a total of 719 appearances in all competitions for Milan, scoring 33 goals. His time at Lombardy was hugely successful, as he won a total of 17 trophies.

On his retirement, AC Milan retired his jersey number 6 in honor of his outstanding contributions to the club and he was voted AC Milan's Player of the Century in 1999 on the occasion of the club's 100th anniversary.

With Italy, Baresi made a total of 81 appearances from 1982 to 1994, and was an unused member of the 1982 World Cup winning team, he was controversially left out of the World Cup squad in 1986, as the coach saw him as more of a midfielder than a defender, but became a mainstay in the national team at EURO 1988 and the 1990 World Cup on home soil, where he was named in the team of the tournament as Italy finished in third place, by going five matches and a World Cup record of 518 minutes without conceding a goal until Argentina's equalizer in the semi-final.

He captained his country to a runners-up finish at the 1994 World Cup, injuring himself in the group stage and missing action for 25 days until the final where he returned to help Italy keep a clean sheet against Brazil despite notable absences in defence. He missed a penalty in the subsequent shoot-out and is one of only seven players to have won Gold, Silver and Bronze medals at the World Cup.

Undoubtedly one of the greatest defenders in history, Baresi was selected as part of Pele's FIFA 100 list in 2004, finished as runner-up to teammate Marco Van Basten in the 1990 Ballon d'Or, was voted as Serie A Player of the Year in 1990 and inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame in 2013.