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Franco Baresi
Personal information
Full name	Franceschino Baresi
Date of birth	May 8, 1960 (age 46)
Place of birth	Travagliato (BS), Italy
Height	1.76 m (5 ft 9 in)
Playing position	Defender
Senior clubs1
Years	Club	App (Gls)*
1978-1996	AC Milan	532 (16)
National team
1982-1994	Italy	81 (1)
Teams managed
2002-2006 2006-	AC Milan Primavera AC Milan Berretti
1 Senior club appearances and goals counted for the domestic league only. * Appearances (Goals)

Franco Baresi (born May 8, 1960 in Travagliato, province of Brescia) is an Italian youth team coach and former football defender with A.C. Milan, acknowledged as one of the greatest defenders ever to play the game. Baresi was colloquially called "piscinin".

Contents 1 Club career 2 International career 3 Honours 4 Coaching career 5 Trivia 6 See also

Baresi led the AC Milan team and its defense for the best part of a decade; a period during which Milan's defense was considered by many observers to be one of the best back four in history consisting of Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta and Mauro Tassotti. He is also one of the few players who spent his entire career at one club, AC Milan, for whom he played 532 games, scoring 16 goals.

He retired from playing in 1997 aged 37. With Milan, Baresi won six scudetti (Serie A league titles) and three European Cups. He mentored defensive partner Paolo Maldini in his later years, whose career has followed a similar path. His #6 jersey was retired by the club, a rarity for Italian football. After a short spell as Director of Football at Fulham, Baresi returned to Milan as a youth team coach in 2002.

Baresi played in two World Cups for Italy. Baresi was part of the 1982 World Cup squad in Spain aged 22 as sustitute of another great defender, Gaetano Scirea, but didn't play. His international debut came later that year in a match against Romania. He also missed the 1986 tournament and made his World Cup debut in 1990 when Italy were the hosts. The Azzurri lost to Argentina in the semi-finals, but went on to beat England in the third place play off.

In the 1994 World Cup he was one step closer to lifting the trophy, losing to Brazil in the final. Despite missing four matches after being injured in Italy's group match against Norway, he underwent emergency surgery and returned to captain the team in the final. He missed the first penalty in the shootout after the 0-0 full-time and extra-time score.

In Back from the brink Paul McGrath mentioned that were "hard feelings" between the two after Ireland's defeat of Italy at USA 94. McGrath hinted that this was due to his superior ability.

He was also a member of the Italian squad that finished fourth at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

On March 4, 2004, at a gala ceremony in London, to mark the 100th anniversary of the foundation of the Fédération Internationale de Football Association (FIFA), the international governing body of football revealed the FIFA 100. The list contains choice of the "greatest living footballers", Baresi was one of many from the legendary Milan teams of 1990's to be included.

In 2002, Baresi was appointed head coach of AC Milan's Primavera Under-20 squad. In 2006, he was moved by the club to coach the Berretti Under-19 squad, with his former fellow Filippo Galli replacing him at the helm of the Primavera squad.

His elder brother Giuseppe Baresi played for bitter rivals Inter.Baresi was going to play for Inter but was rejected by the club so he joined AC Milan

• 1994 UEFA Champions League Final.
• One-club man.

	Italy squad - 1982 FIFA World Cup Champions (3rd Title)
1 Zoff | 2 Baresi | 3 Bergomi | 4 Cabrini | 5 Collovati | 6 Gentile | 7 Scirea | 8 Vierchowod | 9 Antognoni | 10 Dossena | 11 Marini | 12 Bordon | 13 Oriali | 14 Tardelli | 15 Causio | 16 Conti | 17 Massaro | 18 Altobelli | 19 Graziani | 20 Rossi | 21 Selvaggi | 22 Galli | Coach: Bearzot

	Italy squad - 1990 FIFA World Cup Third Place
1 Zenga | 2 Baresi | 3 Bergomi | 4 De Agostini | 5 Ferrara | 6 Ferri | 7 Maldini | 8 Vierchowod | 9 Ancelotti | 10 Berti | 11 De Napoli | 12 Tacconi | 13 Giannini | 14 Marocchi | 15 Baggio | 16 Carnevale | 17 Donadoni | 18 Mancini | 19 Schillaci | 20 Serena | 21 Vialli | 22 Pagliuca | Coach: Vicini

	Italy squad - 1994 FIFA World Cup Runners-up
1 Pagliuca | 2 Apolloni | 3 Benarrivo | 4 Costacurta | 5 Maldini | 6 Baresi | 7 Minotti | 8 Mussi | 9 Tassotti | 10 R. Baggio | 11 Albertini | 12 Marchegiani | 13 D. Baggio | 14 Berti | 15 Conte | 16 Donadoni | 17 Evani | 18 Casiraghi | 19 Massaro | 20 Signori | 21 Zola | 22 Bucci | Coach: Sacchi

Persondata
NAME	Baresi, Franceschino
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Baresi, Franco
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Italian footballer
DATE OF BIRTH	May 8, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH	Travagliato (BS), Italy
DATE OF DEATH
PLACE OF DEATH