MY ACCOUNT
Milan legend Arrigo Sacchi is to receive the UEFA president’s sward at Thursday’s Champions League group stage draw.
The award, presented at the start of each season to recognise “outstanding achievements that transcend the sport”, was won by Milan defender Simon Kjaer and Denmark’s medical team last year for their response to Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest at Euro 2020.
UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin hailed Sacchi, who will follow in the footsteps of previous Italian recipients Paolo Maldini, Gianni Rivera and Francesco Totti, for his “endless tactical innovations” which “reshaped” football.
Sacchi was credited with transforming the game by implementing a high-octane pressing style during a four-year spell as Milan coach between 1987 and 1991, winning one Serie A title before lifting back-to-back European Cups in 1989 and 1990.
The tactician later came within a spot-kick of glory as Italy boss, overseeing the Azzurri’s penalty shoot-out defeat to Brazil in the 1994 World Cup final.
Ceferin said: “This award recognises professional excellence and furthermore, it honours the legacy left by exceptional individuals in the game of football.
“Very few people have reshaped the philosophy of the game in the way that Arrigo Sacchi has managed, so that the sport itself can be observed in two eras – pre- and post-Sacchi.
“The endless tactical innovations he introduced are today the foundations of any footballing playbook, mirrored by generations of coaches who have followed.
“Sacchi reinvented the ethos of teamwork, which transcended to pure harmony on the pitch.
“Perfect synchronisation and a winning mindset, irrespective of whether they were playing at home or away, felt almost supernatural back in the 1980s. That is precisely what divides excellence from greatness.”
