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AC Milan head coach Massimiliano Allegri will return to his old stomping ground on Friday night, facing his former club Pisa.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, it all started at the Arena Garibaldi, which has now changed its name due to a sponsorship agreement. For Allegri, it will always be the stadium where he played his first Serie A match.
Ironically, on that June 11, 1989, the opponents of the Nerazzurri were none other than Arrigo Sacchi’s Milan. A couple of weeks earlier (on May 24), the Rossoneri lifted the European Cup against Steaua Bucharest in Barcelona. Three days after that, they won the inaugural Supercoppa Italiana against Sampdoria.
Allegri hadn’t yet turned 22: he had already played four seasons with Cuoiopelli and Livorno, but he was missing the joy of his debut in the top flight. With two minutes remaining, the most anticipated thrill came: he came on for Nicola Martini for a Pisa side that had been mathematically relegated already.
This gave him the satisfaction he’d been waiting for for months, spent training without ever getting a chance. Lamberto Giorgis – Pisa’s third coach of the season after Bruno Bolchi and Luca Giannini – gave him the chance. The final result that day was 2-0, thanks to a Marco van Basten brace.
Previous returned
Allegri has already returned to Pisa as an opponent, when he was on the bench for Grosseto in Serie C1. That was on September 10, 2006, the match was drawn 0-0. His staff already included the trusted Marco Landucci, now assistant, then goalkeeping coach, Simone Folletti, (then and still is) athletic trainer, and Emilio Doveri, then assistant and now opposing scout.
Tomorrow evening, he will return to Pisa as an opponent for the first time in Serie A. It will, in effect, be like closing a circle. Compared to 1989, he has a career under his belt with over 200 appearances between Serie A and Serie B.
Not only that, but he has had a ‘second life’ as a coach in which he won six Scudetti (one with Milan and five with Juventus), eight other trophies (five Coppa Italia and three Supercoppa Italiana), and reached two Champions League finals, both of which he lost while coaching the Old Lady.
Nearly 37 years ago, it was impossible to even imagine that the attacking midfielder, a classic No.10 with a lean physique (and thicker hair) would write historic pages of Italian football at the helm of Juventus.
In that 1988-89 season, Allegri – a true Livorno native who spent one season playing for their historic rivals Pisa – would make two more appearances in the league and two in the Coppa Italia before returning to his hometown in 1989-90 to play in Serie C2 with Pro Livorno.
For him it was a sort of restart as he would taste Serie A again, this time as a protagonist, with Pescara in 1992-93: 12 goals, a career record. As a coach against Pisa, Allegri has one defeat (1-0 on 24 October 2005) and one draw (0-0 on 10 September 2006) when he was at Grosseto.
This year in the first meeting (on October 24, curiously two decades after their first meeting), Milan snatched a draw in added time thanks to a long-range effort from Zachary Athekame. This time, he wants a win, not so much to break the taboo against his ex club, but to keep pushing with the Rossoneri.
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