Franco Baresi (; born 8 May 1960 in Travagliato, Italy ) is an Italian football youth team coach and former player.

He is also the younger brother of Internazionale legend and current vice coach Giuseppe Baresi.

Baresi is one of the few players who have won all domestic club, international club and national honours, and doing so all with his native country.

The back four that included Maldini and fellow long-timers Franco Baresi, Alessandro Costacurta and Mauro Tassotti is widely considered one of European football's most formidable defensive quartets of the 1990s.

He is best known for his role alongside Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini and Mauro Tassotti, forming one of the greatest defences in the Serie A and European football during the 90s.

Giuseppe Baresi ( born 7 February 1958 in Travagliato, province of Brescia ) is an Italian footballer, who spent most of his career with Internazionale.

Baresi was nicknamed " Piscinin ", Milanese for " Little one ".

The list contains choice of the " greatest living footballers ", Baresi was one of many from the legendary Milan teams of the 1990s to be included.

Panucci had one of his best offensive seasons in 1995-96, scoring five goals, while helping to form the league's tightest defense alongside internationals Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini, and Alessandro Costacurta.

Except keeping Giuseppe Baresi and Daniele Bernazzani as backroom staff in the first team or in the youth system, as well as Marco Branca as one of the director, the team had changed from Rafael Benítez, Leonardo, Gasperini and most recently Ranieri in just 2 seasons.

With Milan, Baresi won six scudetti ( Serie A league titles ) and three European Cups – though he did not take part in the last win, his club's 1994 Champions League victory, through suspension.

Fortunato took Paolo Maldini ’ s place and played alongside the legendary Franco Baresi in a game the Azzurri won 3-0.

Baresi was selected for three World Cups for Italy, in 1982, 1990, and 1994.

Alongside the likes of AC Milan legend Franco Baresi and Juventus FC's Antonio Cabrini and Gaetano Scirea, he formed the backbone of the national team's defence for much of the 1980s, making his debut on 14 April 1982 in a 0 – 1 friendly loss in East Germany, aged only 18 years and 3 months ; in the victorious World Cup run in Spain, he appeared in three games, including the full 180 minutes in the last two matches.

When the Azzuri crashed out to France in the 1986 tournament and Scirea retired, the mantle was passed to Baresi who returned to the side, a responsibility that become more poignant when Scirea was killed in a car accident aged 36, only months before Italy was to host the World Cup.

Thus, Baresi made his World Cup debut in 1990.

" Baresi missed the first penalty kick in the shootout, and with teammate Roberto Baggio missing the last penalty, Italy lost the first World Cup Final to be decided on penalties.

The emphasis of this system in Italian football spawned the rise of many top defenders such as Claudio Gentile and Gaetano Scirea in the 1970s, Giuseppe Bergomi and Franco Baresi in the 1980s, the famous all-Italian Milan defensive four of Baresi, Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Costacurta and Mauro Tassotti of the 1990's and 2006 World Cup winners Fabio Cannavaro and Alessandro Nesta and many others in 2000s for which the Italian national team would become famous.

* Franco Baresi World Cup Kick Off ( 1990 )

Along with Franco Baresi and Roberto Baggio, Massaro missed a penalty kick against Brazil in the 1994 World Cup in the shootout which cost Italy the title.

In 1988 – 89 European Cup season, Red Star played against Arrigo Sacchi ’ s A. C. Milan with its Dutch European champions trio Gullit, van Basten and Rijkaard, the absolute superstars at that time, as well as the devensive stars Baresi, Maldini, Costacurta and Tassotti.

In 1999, Baresi was voted AC Milan Player of the Century.

Baresi was brought by his older brother Giuseppe for a trial in Inter's youth team, but was rejected.

Despite this setback, Baresi refused to give up his dream and tried out for the Milan youth team, where he was accepted.

Baresi led the Milan team and its defence for the best part of a decade.

Unconventional for an Italian defender trained in the catenaccio tradition, Baresi was an attacking defender who often assisted the team in counterattacks but without neglecting his defensive duties.

After 20 years with Milan, Baresi announced his retirement as a player on 24 June 1997.

Unfortunately for Baresi, his early international career coincided with the peak of Gaetano Scirea's stint as Italy's first-choice sweeper, and Baresi was continually left out of the squad.

Baresi was injured early in the tournament in the group match against Norway, and after emergency surgery, was able to return for the final against Brazil.

Baresi was also a member of the Italian squad that finished fourth at the 1984 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, California.

On 1 June 2002 Baresi was officially appointed as director of football at Fulham, but tensions between Baresi and then Fulham manager Jean Tigana led to resignation from the club in August.

Indeed, even today, many " Baresi " are still unaware of what happened and why.

Among his teammates at that club were compatriots Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard, along with Paolo Maldini and Franco Baresi.

But there's one thing I never seen or heard of, one thing I just don't think there is, and that's a sportin' way o' killin' a man ''!!

I seized the rack and made a western-style flying-mount just in time, one of my knees mercifully landing on my duffel bag -- and merely wrecking my camera, I was to discover later -- my other knee landing on the slivery truck floor boards and -- but this is no medical report.

The true artist is like one of those scientists who, from a single bone can reconstruct an animal's entire body.

In fact, one important aspect of their very religion is the annihilation of men ''.

It took thirty of our women almost six moons to build this one, which is higher and stronger than the old one.

I clapped the big man with the bleached hair on his shoulder and said heartily, hoping it would make an impression on the women: `` This one is the maku Frayne.

`` This one is a tender chicken, oui??

but he presents it publicly so enmeshed in hypocrisy that it is not an honest one.

My definition of this much abused adjective is that a reconstructed rebel is one who is glad that the North won the War.

For one thing, this is not a subject often discussed or analyzed.

The general acceptance of the idea of governmental ( i.e., societal ) responsibility for the economic well-being of the American people is surely one of the two most significant watersheds in American constitutional history.

A third, one of at least equal and perhaps even greater importance, is now being traversed: American immersion and involvement in world affairs.

Today, as new nations rise from the former colonial empires, nationalism is one of the hurricane forces loose in the world.

Historically, however, the concept is one that has been of marked benefit to the people of the Western civilizational group.

It is one of the ironic quirks of history that the viability and usefulness of nationalism and the territorial state are rapidly dissipating at precisely the time that the nation-state attained its highest number ( approximately 100 ).

But it is more than irony: one of the main reasons why nationalism is no longer a tenable concept is because it has spread throughout the planet.

Accidental war is so sensitive a subject that most of the people who could become directly involved in one are told just enough so they can perform their portions of incredibly complex tasks.

Only one rule prevailed in my conversations with these men: The more highly placed they are -- that is, the more they know -- the more concerned they have become.

However, the system is designed, ingeniously and hopefully, so that no one man could initiate a thermonuclear war.