The vast Curva Sud of the San Siro never stops. “Come on Milan,” they sing, 20,000 of them in unison, most in black T-shirts in the middle of the vast cavity’s three tiers. It sounds magnificent. “I’m just living for you. I’m never going to leave you. I will always be with you. I don’t care if I end up in trouble. You’re my only love; I’ll never cheat on you.”
They have reason to sing. Their team, who had not been good enough to qualify for European competition after last season’s disappointing eighth-place finish, 19 points behind champions Napoli, are beating the Napoli of Scot McTominay, Kevin De Bruyne and Rasmus Hojlund and about to go top of the league. Milan are down to 10 men, Napoli are dominating possession and how those fans make a difference.
And how these fans had been missed, for while they had been present at the opening games of the season, the supporters on the curvas (curves) at both AC Milan and their city rivals Internazionale had decided not to sing or show any of their famous banners.
A police investigation into their activities, from tickets to merchandise and food at the stadium mainly focusing on those at Inter, had angered the groups. Football fans being at odds with authorities is nothing new and as the argument rumbled on, Milan played without the backdrop which makes San Siro one of the best places on the planet to watch football.
Players were not happy, but for the Napoli game the singers found their voices and for this weekend’s game against Fiorentina the banners should be back. It’ll help since Milan have enjoyed a surprisingly positive start to the season, winning four, drawing one and losing one.
The National went to Milan’s game against Napoli, staged at the end of Milan’s fashion week, to find out what is happening.
Alexio and his friends are local boys and they walk to the stadium, growing in numbers as they get closer, like a river widening as more tributaries join it.
They come together at Barretto 1957 football bar – a simple, historic place adorned with memorabilia in the shadow of San Siro’s north end, where Inter’s most vocal fans normally gather. For AC Milan home games it’s a Milan space. And there’s space around San Siro.
London’s Wembley, a bigger and far more modern stadium, is being suffocated by endless construction of apartments around it, yet San Siro stands alone on a vast strip of concrete, but for the bars and concession stands that sell food, drinks and merchandise.
It works. Not everything has to be a chain. There’s community, friends who’ve been going to see Milan together for decades, experiencing the highs and the lows.
The group call one sustained low between scudetto title wins in 2011 and 2022 ‘the Banter years’. Milan became a bit of a joke, finishing as low as 10th in 2015.
Last season could be included in that era, but this one has started much better despite the sales of midfielder Tijani Reijnders for €50 million to Manchester City and not always harmonious full-back Theo Hernandez to Al Hilal.
In their place and under the guidance of new technical director Igil Tare from Lazio, legendary but aged genius Luka Modric, 40, came from Real Madrid.
Full-back Pervis Estupinan came from Brighton to become Milan’s first Ecuadorian player. Midfielder Adrien Rabiot joined on a free transfer having fought with his own Marseille teammates during a pre-season friendly that was described as being like “an English pub fight” by Marseille coach Roberto di Zerbi and “extremely violent” by the club president.
Yet Rabiot had a key ally having played under current Milan coach Massimiliano Allegri at Juventus, where the pair had a surprisingly strong bond. It’s working so far, according to the group of fans sat eating pizza outside Barretto.
And when they don’t talk about the present, they remember the past, with legendary captain Franco Baresi listed as the all-time idol for most. He’s referred to simply as Capitano.
The nearby walls are adorned with Inter murals and the fans of both clubs agree not to touch each other’s artwork. San Siro is one of the greatest sights in world football.
Set against a clear blue late summer sky, its giant red girders sit on top of cylindrical towers around the stadium’s perimeter. As the sun fades, shafts of white light beam out through the slits in the vast stairs of layered ramps which hang on the outer walls and lead in a clockwise direction from ground level to various entry points around the stadium.
The overall effect is that the long-time home of Inter and AC Milan has an identity all of its own. It looks like a spaceship,, like it wants to fight, like it knows its place as a concrete, glass and steel cathedral of world football.
But, like many stadiums in Italy, it has received little investment since the 1990 World Cup finals were staged in the country. Most stadiums are owned by the local municipality, denying clubs funds from executive facilities and ticket revenues.
The few clubs that do own their own homes, including Juventus, Atalanta and Udinese, have benefitted during a time when Serie A, while widely respected, is slipping further behind the commercial juggernaut of England’s Premier League.
No Italian club has won the Uefa Champions League since Jose Mourinho’s Inter in 2010, although both Juventus and Inter have reached the finals. It feels inadequate when you consider that AC Milan were European champions five times between 1989-2007.
Milan’s money came from being a huge club and Silvio Berlusconi, an Italian media magnate, later the country’s leader. Car manufacturer Fiat is still involved with the once imperious Juventus, but ownership is shifting. American, mainly private equity, owners are involved at both Milan clubs, Atalanta and Roma.
It’s a time of change. Italy’s national team, continental champions in 2021, are weaker than any other time in recent memory. When Italy last won the World Cup in 2006, they had Fabio Cannavaro, Marco Materazzi, Alessandro Nesta, Gennaro Gattuso, Francesco Totti, Gigi Buffon, Gianluca Zambrotta, Luca Toni, Alessandro Del Piero and Filippo Inzaghi under the eyes of serial winner Marcello Lippi.
Of the five best current Italian footballers: Sandro Tonali, Gigi Donnarumma, Alessandro Bastoni, Riccardo Calafiori and Nicolo Barella, three play in England.
The top money was in Italy in the 1980s and 90s, now it’s in England. Now, it’s not uncommon for top players to play in Italy, but it’s usually on the way down – not that there is anything wrong for Luca Modric to be in Milan, Jamie Vardy, 38, at Cremonese or Nemanja Matic, 37, at Sassuolo. Then there are younger players that struggled to secure regular places at top English teams.
McTominay left Manchester United just over a year ago and has become such a star in Naples that he tells The National after the game that he’s loving life and the change of scene after playing all his career at Old Trafford.
Is it any surprise? He lives in a wonderful football city amid fine culture and he’s now an Italian champion who was on the shortlist for the Ballon d’Or.
Christian Pulisic, captain of the United States, was a big-money signing for Chelsea where he was in and out of the team. He’s now one of AC Milan’s best players.
The changing demographics mean that Milan’s 11 starting players against Napoli are from 10 countries, with three more nationalities on the bench. Milan is cosmopolitan and so is their team.
Milan and Inter fans love San Siro, but while somebody else owns it, they feel stuck.
While The National was in Milan, officials were meeting to decide the fate of the stadium. A vote was held where it was decided that the stadium would be sold to Inter and Milan. Both clubs want to start afresh with a new venue adjacent to the current one. It seems crazy to this outsider, like demolishing Rome’s Colosseum. Will they demolish that or Verona’s amphitheatre because they don’t have a sponsored business suite?
San Siro needs some love, not knocking down. It’s still a colossal structure where the pitch is framed by a roof so vast that the sky seems like a small rectangle from the pitch below.
But in Milan, those who travel to the stadium every week are more sanguine about change. They talk of poor toilets and an ageing venue not fit for the huge crowds that watch football there.
Despite their eighth-place finish last term, Milan’s average home crowd of 71,512 was the highest in the country, just ahead of Inter in a league where the average is a healthy 30,000.
Italian football still has numerous virtues and the atmosphere created by fans is one of them. It’s louder than in England, but while hooliganism has been a problem, strict ticketing means it’s safer to watch football in Italy than 20 years ago.
That ticketing doesn’t stop 5,000 Napoli fans attending San Siro, a proper following, especially given the 8.45pm Sunday night kick-off time for a first vs second game, one between the wily coaches of Napoli’s Antonio Conte, who took the team from 10th to champions, and Milan’s Allegri, back for a second spell.
Allegri is a stabiliser, funny with little filter when he talks. He’s animated and passionate, respected, too. And with no European football he can concentrate his efforts on Serie A, while the Napoli team he faces have flown back to Italy after a midweek Champions League defeat at Manchester City.
Yet it’s still a surprise when Milan take the lead after three minutes. Belgian forward Alexis Saelemaekers gets the goal. Pulisic makes it 2-0 after 31 minutes. What noise.
“The best first half since the days of Seedorf,” messages Alexio, harking back to a time when Clarence Seedorf played between 2002 and 2012. “No, I mean Rijkaard,” (1988-93) he adds. After a poor couple of years, fans can be excused for being exuberant.
The music played over the public address system at half-time is known internationally, yet made in Milan. Freed from Desire, a 1997 hit now more popular on the terraces than ever, is by local girl Gala Rizzatto. Ride on Time, an international 1990 hit, came out of the local Italian house music group Black Box.
The mood in the stadium changes after 57 minutes when Milan’s Pervis Estupinan receives a red card and a penalty is awarded to Napoli after a long VAR review.
De Bruyne, who recently left Manchester City, and his teammate Matteo Politano urge the travelling fans high on the third tier for more support.
The theatrics are strong when Santiago Gimenez, a full-back signed from Girona, calls on the home crowd for more. They oblige, all 70,000 of them. Crowds are up across Italy in the post-Covid world.
Hojlund, De Bruyne and McTominay are all substituted with 20 minutes to play and time running out. They have played well, and taken 15 shots to six, but their team is losing.
Milan’s captain, French goalkeeper Mike Maignan, catches the ball and cradles it like a baby. He's in no rush to release it. When a board is held up stating there will be more minutes of added time, the crowd boo. The tension is high, the relief tangible at the final whistle, a wall of sound cascading from the stands as Milan go top of Serie A.
Modric suggests that players link arms to celebrate in front of both curvas. There’s no pushback against this. This has been the best night in Milan for a while, yet Napoli remain favourites to retain a title they have lifted twice in the past three years. Six games in, only three points separate Italy’s top five and only one point the bottom four. All the more reason to keep an eye on Serie A.
