Team History: A.C Milan Trivia Quiz

Answer: Nottingham

Associazione Calcio Milan, known universally as AC Milan, was officially founded on 16 December 1899 by Nottingham businessmen Alfred Edwards and Herbert Kiplin. Edwards was a former British vice-consul in Milan and was popular amongst the elites of the city. Edwards was the club's first president, while Kiplin managed the football team.

Answer: Genoa

Genoa were the dominant team in the embryonic days of the Serie A championship, winning the first title in 1898 and following this up with victories in 1899, 1900, 1902, 1903 and 1904. Milan won three titles in the 1900s, adding the 1906 and 1907 championships to their inaugural win in 1901.

While Juventus is by far the most successful club in Serie A history, it did not win its first title until 1905. Inter won its first title in 1909-10. Hellas Verona are former champions of Serie A, but won their first championship in 1984-85.

Answer: Name change

Upon its foundation in 1899, the club was originally called Milan Foot-Ball and Cricket Club. In 1919, the team then changed its name to Milan Football Club. In 1939, Mussolini's regime imposed the name Associazione Calcio Milano on the club because he wanted to Italianise the name. After Mussolini was deposed and the Second World War ended, the club name was changed to Associazione Calcio Milan.

While Milan did move into the San Siro during Mussolini's era (1926 to be exact), this was not at Mussolini's behest. The Italian dictator was not of the same persuasion as Germany's Hitler when it came to Jews. He considered Italian Jews as Italians and was one of the first public figures to actively oppose Nazi deportations to death camps.

Answer: Sweden

The nickname was a contraction of the three players' names: Gunnar Gren; Gunnar Nordahl and Nils Liedholm. The trio helped Sweden to the gold medal at the 1948 Summer Olympics in London and Nordahl joined Milan that same summer with Gren and Liedholm re-uniting with their teammate in 1949.

Their biggest success together was winning the Serie A title (known as the Scudetto) in 1951. Nordahl won further Scudetti in 1955, 1957 and 1959, winning the 1955 title with Liedholm. It was a period of great success and consistency for the club, with Milan never finishing outside the top 3 in Serie A between 1947-48 and 1956-57.

Answer: Gianni Rivera

Rivera was at the club for nearly two decades between 1960 and 1979. He was renowned for his vision, creativity and playmaking abilities. He played in midfield in the 1963 final (a 2-1 win over Benfica) while being used as a striker in Milan's 4-1 crushing of Johan Cruyff's Ajax in 1969.

Altafini played only in the 1963 final, scoring both goals in the final. Rosato and Hamrin joined after the 1963 success (Rosato in 1966, Hamrin in 1967) and both started the 1969 final.

Answer: It featured the last European Cup final hat-trick in its old format

Pierino Prati scored a hat-trick as Milan thrashed Ajax 4-1 in the final. Angelo Sormani also scored for the Rossoneri while Velibor Vasovic scored for Ajax. This was the last hat-trick scored in a European Cup final before the competition's format and name changed in 1992.

Ajax had two non-Dutch players in their starting XI, including the aforementioned Vasovic (Yugoslavia) and Inge Danielsson (Sweden). The first European Cup final to feature two previous champions was 1962, when 1961 champs Benfica defeated Real Madrid, who won the tournament's first five installments between 1956 and 1960. In 1969 Ajax had not won the European Cup yet anyway and would wait until 1971 to achieve this.

While Milan did comfortably win, the biggest cushion in European Cup final history at this point was four goals. (Real Madrid 7-3 Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960 and since then Bayern Munich 4-0 Atletico Madrid in 1974, Milan 4-0 Steaua Bucharest in 1989 and AC Milan 4-0 Barcelona in 1994).

Answer: European Cup Winners' Cup

Milan won the 1973 Cup Winners' Cup, defeating teams such as Legia Warsaw, Sparta Prague and Spartak Moscow en route to the final, where they controversially defeated Leeds United. (Christos Michas, who refereed the final, was later banned for life).

The club also won three Coppa Italia titles in this decade, taking home the title in 1972, 1973 and 1977 while also winning the Intercontinental Cup in 1970. Milan's highest league finish in this era was second place, achieving this in three straight seasons between 1971 and 1973.

Answer: Daniele Massaro

Massaro made his name at Fiorentina before joining Milan in 1986. He would go on to make over 300 appearances at the club between 1986 and 1995, winning three European Cups at the San Siro.

Gullit and Van Basten, a year before leading the Netherlands to glory at the 1988 European Championships, both joined in the summer of 1987 after successful spells at PSV and Ajax respectively. Ancelotti joined in the same year, staying with the club until 1992 when he retired.

Answer: Inter Milan

Between 1960 and 2004, the European Cup/Champions League winners would face the winners of the Copa Libertadores (the South American equivalent) in the Intercontinental Cup. Milan became only the second club in history to win consecutive Intercontinental Cups after Inter achieved the feat in 1964 and 1965. In 1989, Milan defeated Colombian side Atletico Nacional and in 1990 bested Paraguayan club Olimpia. Sao Paulo (1992 and 1993) were the only other side to win consecutive Intercontinental Cups.

While Bayern had the opportunity to win consecutive Intercontinental Cups during their "three peat" (1974-76) of winning the European Cup, they refused to participate in 1974 and 1975 but did win the cup in 1976. Madrid's hopes of winning this competition consecutively were hampered by the year of its formation (1960 was Real's fifth consecutive European triumph) and the fact that their own "three peat" of 2016-18 existed in an era where this cup no longer exists. (They do however hold the distinction of winning the very first Intercontinental Cup in 1960 and won the replacement FIFA World Club Cup every year between 2016-18). Liverpool won back to back European Cups in 1977 and 1978, but refused to play the Intercontinental Cup both times.

Answer: Nine

The trophy-laden run began in 1987-88 when Milan won Serie A for the first time since 1979. A disappointing domestic season in 1988-89 was numbed by glory in both the European Cup and Supercoppa Italiana. They repeated as European champions in 1990, adding another Intercontinental Cup and a European Super Cup to the cabinet. 1990-91 saw the Rossoneri fail to win the big silverware, but they still repeated as European Super Cup and Intercontinental Cup winners.

The period between 1991 and 1994 saw three successive Scudetti arrive at the San Siro, alongside the Supercoppa Italiana in 1993 and 1994 and the 1994 Champions League. Supercoppa Italiana glory followed in 1994-95 as did another European Super Cup. Another league title followed in 1995-96, but the club would win just one piece of silverware in the next six seasons in the form of the 1998-99 Serie A title.

Answer: Started against Bari, ended against Parma

The run of undefeated games started on 19 May 1991 when the team lost 2-1 to Bari in the penultimate game of the 1990-91 season. Parma play a significant role in the streak for two reasons. The undefeated run started with a 0-0 draw against Parma on 26 May 1991 and ended, almost two years later, with a 1-0 loss to Parma on 21 March 1993.

Milan's streak spanned a total of 58 games with the Rossoneri winning 39 games and drawing 19. The club also had an unbeaten away run spanning nearly two and a half years, not losing on the road in Serie A between the loss to Bari in May 1991 and a 3-2 reverse to Sampdoria on 31 October 1993.

Answer: Andriy Shevchenko

Weah was top scorer for the Rossoneri on three occasions. These were in 1995-96 (15), 1996-97 (16) and 1997-98 (13). Massaro was the club's top scorer in the glorious 1993-94 season, scoring 16 times. Papin was joint-top scorer in 1992-93 alongside Marco van Basten. This ended a run of four straight years where van Basten was the sole top scorer.

Shevchenko was the club's top scorer on six occasions, but did not first achieve this until the 1999-2000 season.

Answer: Two

Although this period in Milan's history is remembered fondly, Ancelotti never truly established a stranglehold on the domestic league. The team's only Serie A title in this span came in 2003-04 and the club also finished second in 2004-05. While the club did finish second in the 2005-06 Serie A table, the 2006 Calciopoli match fixing scandal saw Milan stripped of 30 of their points from the 2005-06 season, pushing the Rossoneri out of the top two.

Answer: Four

This first occurred in 1956 and 1959, with Real Madrid defeating Stade de Reims on both occasions. Ajax and Juventus met in both the 1973 and the 1996 finals, with Ajax winning 1-0 in 1973 and Juventus winning on penalties in 1996 after a 1-1 draw.

AC Milan were involved in two of the previous rematches, defeating Benfica in both the 1963 and 1990 finals. Milan also faced Ajax twice, winning in 1969 and losing in 1995.

Answer: Massimo Ambrosini

Ancelotti managed the Rossoneri from November 2001 until the end of the 2008-09 season. Ambrosini was at the San Siro for nearly two decades from 1995 to 2013.

Nesta was at the San Siro for a decade but he joined the Rossoneri in 2002, a year after Ancelotti's arrival. He left Milan in 2012. Costacurta had the longest tenure of any player mentioned, staying with the club between 1986 and 2007. Serginho nearly lasted all of Carletto's tenure, leaving the club in 2008 after signing in 1999.

Answer: Only one manager since Ancelotti lasted more than one full season

The club saw a decade of upheaval and instability after winning its seventh European Cup. Leonardo replaced Ancelotti in 2009, but lasted just one year. Max Allegri took the position in 2010, and would remain in the position until January 2014, winning a league title in 2010-11 and a Supercoppa Italiana the following year. Since then, Filippo Inzaghi (2014-15), Sinisa Mihajlovic (2015-16) and Vincenzo Montella (2016-17) all managed the club for short periods.

Two players won multiple top goalscorer awards for Milan, with Zlatan Ibrahimovic achieving the feat in 2010-11 and 2011-12 while Carlos Bacca achieved the same feat in 2015-16 and 2016-17. While the club did suffer five round of 16 exits in the Champions League between 2008 and 2014, the club did reach the quarter-finals in 2011-12.

Answer: 7th

The Rossoneri finished 8th in 2013-14, the club's lowest league finish since 1997-98. The club's form got even worse in 2014-15 with a tenth placed finish. Since then, the team has gradually improved with a 7th placed finish in 2015-16, a pair of sixth placed finishes in 2016-17 and 2017-18 and a fifth placed finish in 2018-19.

While this period in the club's history saw the club fail to win any trophies, Milan did reach a pair of Coppa Italia finals in 2016 and 2018, losing both to Juventus.

Answer: Gianni Rivera

During his near two-decade spell in Milan, Rivera averaged a goal every four games and scored a total of 164 times in his 658 appearances. Boffi was probably Milan's greatest player of the Mussolini years, scoring 131 times in 187 games between 1936 and 1945. Inzaghi scored 126 times in 300 appearances. Santagostino had 106 goals in 236 games.

Answer: Youngest first team player in Milan's history

Hauser was aged just 15 years and 69 days when he made his debut for Milan in March 1901 in a game against U.S Milanese.

The first Milan player to play in a World Cup was Pietro Arcari, who helped Italy win the 1934 World Cup. (As a result, Arcari was also the first Milan player to lift the Jules Rimet trophy). Carlo Ancelotti broke the record for longest single spell in charge of the club between 2001 and 2009, but Nereo Rocco, who had multiple spells in charge, had a longer combined time in the Rossoneri dugout. Amleto Frignani was the first Milan player to score in the European Cup.

Answer: Nereo Rocco

Rocco won a total of 10 trophies during his multiple spells in Milan. This includes two Serie A titles (1962, 1968), three Coppas Italia (1972, 1973, 1977), two European Cups (1963, 1969), two Cup Winners' Cup titles (1968, 1973) and the 1969 Intercontinental Cup.

Capello won nine trophies, including four Serie A titles (1992, 1993, 1994, 1996), three Supercoppas Italiana (1992, 1993, 1994), a single Champions League triumph (1994) and the UEFA Super Cup that followed it. Sacchi won a single Serie A title, a Supercoppa Italiana (both 1988), two European Cups, two UEFA Super Cup titles and two Intercontinental Cups (all in 1989 and 1990). Ancelotti won a Serie A title (2004), a Supercoppa Italiana (2004), a Coppa Italia (2003), two Champions Leagues (2003, 2007), two UEFA Super Cups (2003, 2007) and a FIFA World Club Cup. (2007)