Franklin Edmundo Rijkaard (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈfrɑŋklɪnˈɛtmundoːˈfrɑŋkˈrɛikaːrt]; born 30 September 1962) is a Dutch former football player and manager who primarily played as a defensive midfielder. Regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, Rijkaard played for Ajax, Real Zaragoza and AC Milan. With Ajax, he won five Eredivisie titles and the 1994–1995 Champions League. With AC Milan, he won Serie A titles, as well as the 1988–89 and 1989–90 European Cup (Champions League) titles.
Johannes Jacobus Neeskens (Dutch pronunciation:[ˈjoːɦɑˈneːskəns]; 15 September 1951 – 6 October 2024) was a Dutch football manager and player. A midfielder, he was an important member of the Netherlands national team that finished as runners-up in the 1974 and 1978 FIFA World Cups and is considered one of the greatest midfielders of all time. In 2004, he was named one of the 125 Greatest Living Footballers at a FIFA Awards Ceremony, while in 2017 he was included in the FourFourTwo list of the 100 all-time greatest players, at the 64th position.
Associazione Calcio Milan (Italian pronunciation:[assotʃatˈtsjoːneˈkaltʃoˈmiːlan]), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan (Italian pronunciation:[atˌtʃimˈmiːlan]) mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tier of Italian football. In its early history, Milan played its home games in different grounds around the city before moving to its current stadium, the San Siro, in 1926. The stadium, which was built by Milan's second chairman, Piero Pirelli, and has been shared with Inter Milan since 1947, is the largest in Italian football, with a total capacity of 75,817. The club has a long-standing rivalry with Inter, with whom they contest the Derby della Madonnina, one of the most followed derbies in football.
Milan has spent its entire history in Serie A with the exception of the 1980–81 and 1982–83 seasons. Silvio Berlusconi’s 31-year tenure as Milan president was a standout period in the club's history, as they established themselves as one of Europe's most dominant and successful clubs. Milan won 29 trophies during his tenure, securing multiple Serie A and UEFA Champions League titles. During the 1991–92 season, the club notably achieved the feat of being the first team to win the Serie A title without losing a single game. Milan is home to multiple Ballon d'Or winners, and three of the club's players, Marco van Basten, Ruud Gullit, and Frank Rijkaard, were ranked in the top three on the podium for the 1988 Ballon d'Or, an unprecedented achievement in the history of the prize.
