Franco Baresi

Franco Baresi is, without any real argument, the gold standard of what a central defender can be. I grew up watching highlights of that AC Milan side — the late '80s and early '90s Sacchi and Capello era teams — and Baresi was the spine that made all of it work. The man spent his entire 20-year career at one club, captained Milan for 15 of those seasons, and redefined what a libero could do: reading the game two moves ahead, gliding into tackles that looked effortless, marshaling a back line that conceded almost nothing. What still gets me is the 1994 World Cup final — he missed the tournament with a knee injury, came back just weeks later, and then stepped up to take a penalty in the shootout. He missed, Italy lost, and yet somehow it barely dented the legend. That's how untouchable his reputation was.

Name (English)

Franco Baresi

Name (Japanese)

フランコ・バレージ

Reading

ふらんこ・ばれーじ

Born

May 8, 1960 (age 66)

Zodiac / Chinese zodiac

Taurus / Rat

Origin

Travagliato, Province of Brescia, Italy

Height

176 cm

Occupation

association football player / association football coach

Awards & achievements

• 1991 Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
• 2017 Gold Collar for Sports Merit

Motto

Private

• Wikipedia (Japanese)https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E3%83%95%E3%83%A9%E3%83%B3%E3%82%B3%E3%83%BB%E3%83%90%E3%83%AC%E3%83%BC%E3%82%B8

Tags

• Province of Brescia
• association football player
• association football coach

Last updated

2026-06-02

Facts are limited to publicly available information up to 2024; non-public or unconfirmed items are omitted. English text is machine-assisted (facts translated by Sonnet, "My Take" written by Opus 4.8). The Japanese page is the source of record.