Marcovanbasten. Yes, written like this, all attached. For Milan fans Van Basten was, is and will always remain in history, in that special room that opens the door only to legends, to those who were greater than the others.
There would be many things to write about him, who turned 50 on Friday. But more than the date of the birthday, October 31st, the day that will be difficult to forget is that late afternoon of August 18th 1995, when in the trophy room in Via Turati the Dutchman sat down between Galliani and Braida to say, with a thread of voice: "I have some short news to give: I have decided to stop being a footballer". 14 words that were like a stab in the heart, as well as that cruel greeting on the San Siro lawn before a Milan-Juve Berlusconi Trophy. Pink shirt, reindeer jacket, a slight run with arms raised towards the South. Surreal climate, clapping hands and crying eyes.
It had already been two years since Van Basten had stopped being a footballer, four ankle operations questioned even the possibility of being able to walk normally. Too. For him too. Numbers are not needed (and are not enough) to understand how great it was, those are easily found on Wikipedia. The "swan" was much more: if you have to choose just one adjective to describe it, probably the most appropriate is "elegant", a refined grace that you would never imagine from someone 90 meters tall.
If you have ten minutes of time, search and look at a gallery with his goals, fainting stuff. Goals of all types: right, left, head, free kicks (one of the few at San Siro against Bari) and then the penalties, those thrown "Van Basten", those with the jump before the run-up. And then there's the goal at Den Haag. Of what??? Try writing “Van Basten upside down” on Youtube and see what you find in first place. Beyond belief. He considers it the best goal of his career, and maybe he's not wrong. Oh God, to tell the truth there are many others, from the volley against Russia in the final of the '88 European Championship to the scissor kick against Gothenburg on a cold night in the Champions League at the San Siro (for the record that evening he made other three…), from the diving header at the Bernabeu by harpooning the ball a foot from the ground to the brace in the final in Barcelona against Steaua Bucharest.
Everyone has always spoken well of him: teammates and opponents, no one will ever say anything negative. An example, a champion whose premature farewell to football has helped to strengthen his myth, in a mix between the infinite regret of not being able to see him again at San Siro and the indelible memory of the emotions he has given since that distant summer of 1987. He arrived half injured (he had just had surgery on his ankle, a sad omen), the newspapers hardly talked about him (the headlines were for Scifo, who had just been bought by Inter), for the fans he was half unknown. Berlusconi fell in love with him seeing his goals against Ajax in the box (that's how it was used at the time), and said "Go and get him". No sooner said than done. The cost: one billion and 750 million lire, a sensational deal, far from today's "capital gains". The first season was troubled, he returned in the spring scoring a vital winning goal against Empoli, the prelude to the triumph at the San Paolo against Maradona's Napoli. It was the Scudetto, the beginning of the history of Sacchi's Milan.
On the day of his farewell, the Curva Sud dedicated a banner to him that said: "San Siro without you is like a falcon without wings". He doesn't need anything else. One word is enough: Marcovanbasten.
