In a Milan restaurant, English expatriates and Italian enthusiasts founded the Milan Cricket and Football Club, adopting the English spelling of the city's name that the club retains to this day. Alfred Edwards, a lace trader, became the club's first president. The club would go on to win more European Cups than almost any other side in the world, and its red-and-black colors became one of the most recognizable in global sport.
Football in Italy at the turn of the twentieth century was largely an import carried by British businessmen, engineers, and traders working in the country's industrializing northern cities. Alfred Edwards gathered a mixed group of Englishmen and Milanese gentlemen to formalize a club devoted to cricket and football, and, in a detail that still amuses fans, insisted on the English spelling 'Milan' rather than the Italian 'Milano' in the club's name.
The choice of colors, red and black, was reportedly meant to represent the fire of passion against the fear opponents should feel. Cricket faded from the club's activities within a few years, but football took hold immediately, and the club won Italy's first football championship in 1901.
Over the following century, AC Milan became a fixture of European football's elite, winning the European Cup / Champions League seven times, a total surpassed by only Real Madrid, and producing legends like Paolo Maldini, Franco Baresi, and Marco van Basten. A club founded by a lace trader in a restaurant now competes on television screens across every continent.
Key people: Alfred Edwards