Nowhere on earth are the fortunes of rich men, their ups andtheir downs, more intrinsically bound to football teams than in Italy.
Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister, built up, orbought up, an imperious era for AC Milan while he was running the country. Butnow that he stands convicted of tax fraud, his team struggles to fill half itsstadium. And struggles to hold its head above water in the Italian league.
Saturday night at the San Siro was a chastening experience.
Milan beat a fellow struggler, Genoa, 1-0, with a goalstolen toward the end by Stephan El Shaarawy. The scorer, born of an Egyptianfather and an Italian mother, refused to celebrate on the field because Genoahad been his first club, his home from the age of 13 until Milan signed him ayear ago.
Saturday was El Shaarawy’s 20th birthday, and he is, ifanyone can be, the promise of a better tomorrow for AC Milan. He is a modernyoung man, distinctive through his Mohawk haircut, and still almost shy in themedia spotlight. “I dedicate this goal to President Berlusconi,” he said. “It’sa tough moment. I dedicate it to my family as well. They are very specialpeople, and always close to me.”
The toughness of the moment, perhaps, alludes to making hisway with a club living on fading memories of when those great Italian defenders“ Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini “ stood solidly behind the Dutch flairplayers Marco van Basten, Frank Rijkaard and Ruud Gullit.
That blend, bankrolled by Berlusconi, conquered Europe in aglorious fashion a decade and a half ago. The stadium was always full in thosedays, as was the presidential tribune at the San Siro.
Now it is a different story. Innumerable empty seats are thesigns of disillusionment. The media aims its fire toward the customary place,asking day and night how long it can be that Massimiliano Allegri remains coachof a team that has made the worst start in Milan’s history since 1941.
Berlusconi’s political party, then called Forza Italia, afamous football slogan, rose with his team. He took on, and shamelesslyoutspent, everyone, even the Agnelli family at Juventus. And the one thing thatshould not be taken away from Silvio Berlusconi is that he knew how to build ateam and how to entrust it to coaches who by pleasing him enthralled millionsof Italians.
Indeed, more than Italians. The Milan team financed byBerlusconi went above and beyond the relatively easy satisfaction that Italygained from winning. In a word, Milan entertained. Now, it suffers. Allegri isnot to blame. He has been dealt a collapsed pack of cards.
The great Berlusconi sell-off started three years ago, whenMilan received an offer from Real Madrid for the playmaker Kaka. The Braziliandid not want to go, in fact he cried openly at being sold like an expensivetrinket from the place he called his sporting home.
But more followed. The generation of Filippo Inzaghi,Alessandro Nesta, Clarence Seedorf and Andrea Pirlo was ending. And the finalcuts, the final indignities, came this last summer when the goal scorer ZlatanIbrahimovic and the defender Thiago Silva departed for Paris Saint-Germain.
Maybe the cycle of Milan is going through a rough rebirthand, with or without its benefactor Berlusconi, a new generation is having tofight for the affections of the supporters. There might even be a postBerlusconi glory one day.
