Football supporters around the world, not just the AC Milan and Italy fans who will turn out in numbers to pay their respects, will shed a tear when Franco Baresi is laid to rest in the Basilica of Sant'Ambrogio in the Lombardy capital this morning.
Dave McPherson, the former Hearts, Rangers and Scotland defender, and Gary Gillespie, who represented Falkirk, Coventry, City, Liverpool, Celtic and Scotland, will be very much among them.
Players always admire those who have reached the pinnacle of their profession in their position and both men looked up to Baresi, the three-time Champions League winner who spent his entire 20 year career with I Rossoneri, during his imperious heyday.
The 81-times capped internationalist is considered by knowledgeable observers to be one of the greatest centre-backs in the history of the game, if not the greatest.
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But “Kaizer Franz” – who was given that nickname towards the end of his time at the San Siro in the 1990s due to his similarities with the legendary German libero Franz Beckenabuer - has a special place in McPherson’s heart.
He believes he improved greatly when Joe Jordan was manager at Hearts because the Scotland icon had played alongside Baresi during his time at AC Milan and was eager for his charges to try to replicate how his old team mate approached matches.
“When Joe came to Tynecastle in 1990 all he spoke to us about was Italian defenders,” he said. “He would always talk about how well organised they were, about how well disciplined in their individual and collective roles they were.
“And he always spoke about Franco Baresi as being the best of all the defenders he played with and played against. So I had a good knowledge about him even before I played against him through Joe.
“Joe would talk about the lines of defence, about the different parts of the pitch where the defenders should set up, and we would work at it in training. He learned from the very best, from Franco Baresi. So anything we learned about defending we effectively learned from him.
“There wasn’t as much football on television back in those days as there is now, but Joe would use video clips which he had of Italian teams defending to show us what he was talking about. There were also some highlights on television which we could watch.
“I learned a lot about the Italian way of defending during my time working with Joe. It's very simple, very organised. But to me football is all about keeping it simple. The best managers in the world will all tell you that. We seem to have complicated the game in the years since.”
What Jordan advocated had the desired impact. Hearts came second in the Premier Division during his first full season in charge. They finished just eight points behind champions Rangers and a point ahead of Celtic in the top flight table.
McPherson was delighted when he was selected for the Scotland side which played the Italian team that Baresi captained in a USA ’94 qualifier at Ibrox in 1992 and thrilled when he helped the national team to grind out a 0-0 draw.
“Franco Baresi wasn’t the only great player they had,” he said. “Paolo Maldini was in defence, Robert Baggio played for them up front, Gianluigi Lentini was wide left and Alessando Costacurta came on. Their involvement definitely made me think about the game a little bit more than usual beforehand.
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“They were tight in defence and creative in attack because that was what they were all about. To get a 0-0 draw was amazing. But I was able to get a sense of what a good player Baresi was that night.
“Whenever they got a corner kick or a free-kick, he would be the one to organise things from central defence, to draw imaginary lines on the pitch. He didn’t use a lot of words doing it either. He just used a couple of words here and there. But he did it so well. He didn’t need to say much because they were so well organised.
“He had a reputation for being a man of few words and that just increased his aura. I can remember shaking his hand as we walked off the pitch. Sometimes opposition players will give you a hug and congratulate you on your performance after a match. He just gave me a nod.”
McPherson continued, “We had a few chances and on another night might have won. But Andy Goram, who was in goals that evening, had some great saves. It was a really pleasing result overall.
“But Baresi was sensational. He deserves to be regarded as one of the greatest defenders of all-time. He was one of the best I have ever faced or even seen and I consider myself fortunate to have been on the same pitch as him.”
Scotland did not fare so well in the Group 1 rematch in the Stadio Olimpico in Rome the following year – the visitors allowed Roberto Donadoni, Pierluigi Casiraghi, and Stefano Eranio to score and slumped to a 3-1 defeat which killed off their hopes of reaching the World Cup finals.
Incredibly, Baresi, who once again skippered the Azzurri in the Italian capital that night, did not face a club from this country in European competition during a long and trophy-laden career that spanned three decades.
However, he was on the losing side to a team wearing dark blue jerseys in the first leg of the European Under-21 Championship quarter-final in the Stadio Cibali in Catania in 1982. He was unable to prevent Frank McAvennie from scoring the only goal of the game in the first half.
Gillespie was his opposite number in that encounter and he was sad when he learned his old sparring partner had passed away at the age of just 66 last week.
“I grew up in the era when Franz Beckenbauer was in his prime,” he said. “He was my boyhood hero. I had a lot of admiration for him as a centre-back. But Franco Baresi was up there with him.
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“They great AC Milan team he was a member of changed how football was played, with their high line, their readiness to push up from the back. He was a huge part of their success. He wasn't just a fantastic player, he was a fantastic organiser. He organised that back four exceptionally well.
“He wasn't the biggest individual in the world (he stood just 5ft 9in in his studs), but he showed you didn't need to be that tall to be a centre-back if you had that commanding presence as a figure yourself.
“That AC Milan team of the late 80s, early 90s, was the best in European football. It would have been really nice for us at Liverpool to have been pitted against them, but obviously we were banned.
“They were a fantastic team littered with fantastic players, but the leader and the commander, the one who really stood out, was Franco Baresi.
“When I was growing up in Scotland, the sweeper was the intelligent player and the centre-half was the big guy who headed the ball and battered people. But he was never in that mould. He was a reader, an interceptor.
“It's funny how the game has evolved. Centre-backs probably see more of the ball than any other player on the park these days. I'm sure he would have fitted in exceptionally well in the modern era because he could read situations, was good on the ball and had that ability to play under pressure.
“You never saw him making last-ditch tackles. He always used his pace and his intelligence to cut out passes and break down attacks. That AC Milan team was full of superstars, Ruud Gullit, Marco van Basten, Paolo Maldini. But for me he was the leader who commanded respect from everybody.”
Gillespie added, “He was born in 1960, the same year I was born. We were the same age. His passing has hit home a little bit. It underlines how vulnerable human life is, how lucky you are to be here. I had a little scare with cancer last year. I am fine now. But it shows you have to cherish your life and live it to the full. It is very sad news.”
