Milan legend Massimo Ambrosini on Paul Scholes, Highbury and the best player he played with

Massimo Ambrosini is one of the most decorated players in Milan’s illustrious history, winning four Serie A titles – once as captain –  two UEFA Champions League titles, a Coppa Italia and a FIFA Club World Cup across a 17-year association with the Rossoneri.

Ambrosini also played with some of the game’s great midfielders, including Andrea Pirlo, Clarence Seedorf, Kaka, Rui Costa, Demetrio Albertini and Gennaro Gattuso, but admits there’s one player he’d have loved to play alongside.

Ambrosini said: “I used to follow the Premier League as a kid and a player that I loved and I also played against is Paul Scholes.

“I would have loved to play with him. He was a fantastic footballer, very intelligent and very complete as a midfielder; he had a lot of great qualities.

“England had an amazing generation of midfielders. It has always been very difficult to choose between Frank Lampard, Scholes and Steven Gerrard, but for his style, for the way he kicked the ball and passed the ball, I always choose Scholes.”

Of the current crop of English midfielders, Ambrosini holds Declan Rice in high regard, but it’s a Premier League rival who he believes is the world’s best.

“Rice is able to do a lot of things in midfield,” said Ambrosini. “He can recover the ball, he can run with the ball, he can shoot from outside the box and score goals. He is a very complete midfielder and he guarantees consistency every game.

“But Rodri is the best in the world at the moment. I always say that being decisive without being an attacking player and without having “number 10 skills” is very difficult and Rodri is capable of being decisive and important doing a lot of things in the midfield.

The Italian has a long-held fascination with English football that started in the unlikely surroundings of Derby County’s old Baseball Ground back in the mid-1990s, although one former Premier League ground will forever remain unticked on his bucket list.

“I was always fascinated by England and the Premier League from an early age,” said Ambrosini. “I’ll tell you a story about my first experience in England and inside an English stadium.

“I played the Anglo-Italian Trophy with Cesena and we played against Derby County. We lost 6-1 and I scored the only goal of the game for Cesena.

“So since the very beginning of my career, I’ve always considered the atmosphere in the English grounds to be something magical, something difficult to describe, but I remember since entering the Baseball Ground in 1994, it was something special. The atmosphere, the lights, it’s something I still remember.

“I would have also loved to play at Highbury. Unfortunately this never happened but I would have loved to experience the Highbury atmosphere. I say Highbury because Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal were a team who I liked to watch for his style of play, for the players they had and for the rivalry with Manchester United.

“It never happened but if I can pick one stadium in the world I would have loved to play at, it’s Highbury.”

While that night in Derby still holds a place in Ambrosini’s heart, it’s another British ground he regards as having the best atmosphere he ever played in.

Throughout his Milan career, Ambrosini played up and down Italy, as well as travelling all over Europe, to stadiums in Turkey and Germany as well as Manchester United, Tottenham and Celtic, but it was a game for the national team that stands out the most.

“One game I played with the Italian national team at the Millennium Stadium in Cardiff, it was an incredible experience,” said Ambrosini. “Also Celtic Park was something different and the atmosphere was amazing.

“There was no particular club I’d have liked to play for; in England, I would have played anywhere.”

The dream nearly became a reality for Ambrosini at the back end of his career, when he entered talks with West Ham, but the Italian opted to stay in Italy after meeting then-manager Sam Allardyce.

“I went to England to spoke to Sam Allardyce, the West Ham Manager at that time,” said Ambrosini.

“I was very enthusiastic about the opportunity and I was looking forward to signing the contract in one of the following meetings.

“West Ham and Allardyce invited me for a lunch, but Allardyce left the lunch leaving me there with one of his assistants, so we didn’t speak much about football and it didn’t give me good vibes.

“I came back to Italy and I did not receive any news from West Ham for a week, in the meantime Fiorentina approached me and, although I wanted to join West Ham, I was a bit upset about their attitude and I decided not to wait an official propose from them and to sign for Fiorentina.

“The same day I was signing for Fiorentina, West Ham made an official contract proposal and many doubts came to my mind. I called my agent asking if we can hold the Fiorentina contract to think further about the West Ham proposal, but then we decided to sign for Fiorentina.

“We didn’t want to upset Fiorentina since we already reached an agreement with them, but many second thoughts came to my mind when I received the West Ham offer.”

The move to Fiorentina ended a 17-year spell with Milan, where Ambrosini played with some of the game’s greats, including Paolo Madini, Alessandro Nesta, Andriy Shevchenko, and plenty more, but the midfielder ranks the legendary captain head and shoulders above the rest.

Ambrosini said: “The best player I’ve ever played is without any doubt Paolo Maldini. For the quality of the player, for the quality of the man he was, for the consistency during so many years of showing that he was the number one, Paolo Maldini is the best and can’t be compared to anyone else.”

Despite winning almost all there was to win at club level and going on to captain the club, Ambrosini says his greatest achievement was simply to represent the club for so many years.

“Playing 489 matches in the Milan jersey was the greatest achievement of my whole career, and the best thing I could wish the first day I entered the Milanello gates,” he said.

“Winning titles of course, but those titles were consequences of being able to play almost 500 games with Milan.

“Being captain was amazing, but for me the most important thing was being able to stay all those years and play all those games.”

Ambrosini spent much of his Milan career under the guidance of Carlo Ancelotti, who led the club to two UEFA Champions Leagues before enjoying more success at Real Madrid, and the former midfielder believes it’s Ancelotti’s people skills that set him apart as a manager.

“It’s a pleasure and an honour to work with him,” said Ambrosini. “He gives you the feeling that he understands your needs and that he cares about you.

“He is amazing as a manager during the training sessions, he knows a lot about football but he is also amazing in the way he treats the players and how he speaks with the man before speaking to the footballer, and when you manage big teams, this can make the difference.

“His natural empathy makes the difference, he had this natural skill of caring about his players and although the years are passing, he is still appreciated by his players for his attitude and his personal qualities.”

Liam Williams

• A.C. Milan
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