An ode to Franco Baresi, an elegant icon who inspired a generation

[p]There were no mobile phones and no endless stream of highlights. There was [i]90° Minuto,[/i] there was [i]La Domenica Sportiva, [/i]and those few televised minutes were enough to make you fall in love with a player.[/p][p]On Monday afternoons, we would catch the bus to the training ground. In the changing room, the first thing we did was leave our shirts untucked. Nobody told us to, it was simply what you did. [b]It was what he did.[/b][/p][p]And once we stepped onto the pitch, we all felt like [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/baresi-franco/zoCmAtul/"]Franco Baresi[/a].[/p][p]It was a tiny detail, but it said everything.[/p][image alt="Matthaus, Pelé, Baresi, Caliedo, Cantona" id="9058190a-3a26-4437-89ba-e0979ba5d006" credit-line="Valery HACHE / AFP / AFP / Profimedia" guid="7e530f5a-0ac4-4853-9907-bd712307decd" original-width="1400" original-height="962" /][p]Baresi was one of the finest players the game has known, not merely one of its greatest defenders. He was a leader, an example and an icon, a footballer who seemed beyond reproach.[/p][p]I cannot remember him being sent off, although he probably was on occasion. In my memory, he remains the embodiment of a cleaner, more sincere kind of football - one in which a defence was marshalled through intelligence before strength.[/p][p]Baresi was a guide, not only to his teammates but to everyone who dreamed of becoming a footballer, those who spent their afternoons on parish pitches, suburban grounds and youth-team training fields.[/p][p]For a generation, he was the standard. He showed that a defender could be elegant without sacrificing toughness and authoritative without raising his voice.[/p][image alt="Maldini, Rijkaard and Baresi" id="a795734f-b3b8-4310-aa58-e7218840a81e" credit-line="ČTK / imago sportfotodienst / PICHON JEAN CLAUDE" guid="bc32dc33-0a7d-4958-8fb4-5aa5a7aba985" original-width="1400" original-height="952" /][p]Baresi’s legacy cannot be measured by trophies alone. It can also be seen in the defenders who followed him, beginning with [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/player/maldini-paolo/YoxUzuYk/"]Paolo Maldini[/a], who developed alongside him before becoming one of the greatest players in the game’s history. That is what separates a champion from an icon.[/p][p]His death comes at a time when football is very different from the game many of us once knew. Change is not necessarily a bad thing, football has always evolved, but it has become increasingly difficult to identify with figures such as Baresi.[/p][p]He belonged to an era in which a captain was a point of reference before he was a star, when example mattered more than image and respect was earned on the pitch rather than manufactured away from it.[/p][p]With his passing, one of the last great symbols of that age has gone. Perhaps that is why his death leaves us feeling a little poorer.[/p][p]We are not only saying goodbye to one of the greatest defenders in history. We are saying goodbye to a part of ourselves - to a time when leaving your shirt untucked was enough to make you feel, for one afternoon at least, like Franco Baresi.[/p][p][b]Read more: [a href="https://www.flashscore.ca/news/football-serie-a-how-baresi-rose-from-hardship-to-become-an-all-time-great-at-ac-milan/va7sdrFr/"]How Baresi rose from hardship to become a Milan all-time great[/a][/b][/p]