AC Milan retired the number 6 shirt in honour of Franco Baresi. Clubs do not do that lightly, and at Milan it tells you more than any list of statistics.
Baresi spent his entire 20-year career there, making over 700 appearances. He won 6 Serie A titles and 3 European Cups or Champions League trophies, and he was the defensive leader of Arrigo Sacchi's Milan side that dominated Europe in the late 1980s.
Why is Baresi called the best sweeper of all?
Because he rarely needed to tackle. He read the game so well that he was nearly always in the right position before the danger arrived, and he organised the line in front of him with the same precision.
He was also only 5'9". Despite that he was one of the best aerial defenders Italian football has seen, a matter of timing rather than height.
Intelligent, calm and remarkably consistent for two decades, he is one of the finest players Italy has produced and, for many, the finest sweeper the game has had. Number 5.
Tomorrow: number 4.
