The curse of Milan’s No.9

There was a time when the red and black stripes of AC Milan would mean a team among the European elite, one that would challenge for the biggest trophies in Italy and beyond. The seven-time European champions have been trophyless since 2016 and it feels like the wait would be going on at least one season longer even if the coronavirus had not laid waste to the Italian football season.

As of the enforced hiatus, AC Milan were seventh in the Serie A table - 27 points off table-topping Juventus, 26 behind Lazio and worst of all 18 off the pace of a rejuvenated Inter Milan, who for much of the season had led the way in the race for the Scudetto.

Milan are in the Coppa Italia semifinal but it was finely poised going into the second leg against Juventus and not even the most positive of Rossoneri fans would have been confident getting a win in Turin.

They may never know. Instead, the season has been halted for now and rather than think about the possibility of beating Cristiano Ronaldo's league leaders in the cup, they can dwell on these trophyless years and where it all went wrong.

It is fitting that it has been nine years since the club won a trophy of any note because it is the No.9 shirt that might be most emblematic of the team's problems.

Where once this illustrious club's No.9 would strike fear into the hearts of defenders, now they can rarely be relied upon to strike the ball cleanly.

George Weah wore it in the 1990s and it was at this time when he was named World Player of the Year - the first and so far only African to win the award. He won two Serie A titles while at the club and also scored one of the most iconic goals in a red and black shirt when he dribbled the length of the pitch to slot home against Verona.

French striker and another Ballon d'Or winner Jean-Pierre Papin wore the shirt before Weah having arrived at the club for a world record fee in 1992. He helped the club to the 1993 Champions League final, which they lost to his former club Marseille. He scored 18 goals in 40 games but injuries saw him fall short of his renowned best before he left for Bayern Munich.

Before him was perhaps the greatest of them all: Dutchman Marco van Basten. When he arrived in 1987 with international teammate Ruud Gullit the pair guided Milan to a first title in eight seasons. He was not done there. Van Basten won three European Player of the Year awards while he was at Milan, helping the club to back-to-back European Cup wins and three league wins before injury cut short his career.

Fast forward and Filippo Inzaghi was the last player to really do the No.9 shirt justice. He retired in 2012 having spent 11 years at the San Siro and with two Serie A, two Champions League and a Club World Cup to his name. Inzaghi has even tried to right the ship as manager, a role which he held for a brief stint in 2014, but not even Milan's golden boy could restore them to glory. So where has it gone wrong since?

The last man to take the shirt was Polish ­hitman Krzysztof Piatek in the summer of 2019. He had arrived six months earlier and impressed at the San Siro, at least initially. He scored nine in 18 games after joining that January from Genoa, including becoming the fastest player to score six goals for the club, but he found himself sold to Hertha Berlin in the last transfer window.

Unlucky men

Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain wore the number while on loan from Juventus during the 2018-19 season, scoring six goals in 15 games, and eight across all competitions, but nothing like the numbers he had produced for Juventus before or Napoli since. 

Andre Silva wore the shirt before him, scoring just twice in Serie A for the side before leaving for Spanish side Sevilla and then Eintracht Frankfurt in Germany.

Gianluca Lapadula arrived at the club from Serie B side Pescara having fired them to the top flight with 30 goals in 43 games in the 2015-16 season but that form did not continue at the San Siro. He scored eight times in 27 games for the Rossoneri before leaving for Genoa.

Brazil's Luiz Adriano played one season in the No.9 shirt, scoring six goals, before swapping to the No.7 shirt. He left for Spartak Moscow midway through that second season. 

Alexandre Pato had two wonderful seasons as the side's seven before injuries and his shirt swap.

Fernando ­Torres was no better when he was on loan in 2014. The Spanish striker hoped to find the form he had lost but it did not work out after he arrived from Chelsea and scored just once in 10 games before returning to boyhood club Atletico Madrid in January 2015.

Alessandro Matri only scored once with the nine shirt he inherited from Inzaghi. Mattia Destro, on loan from Roma was two goals better but his six-month stay at the San Siro ended with him leaving for Bologna. 

Pato went the other way, swapping No.7 for No.9, but the lion's share of his goals were scored while wearing the smaller number. Pato left the club midway through his only season in the No.9 shirt when he returned to Brazil with Corinthians.

There have been nine No.9s in the nine trophyless seasons since Inzaghi last helped the club to silverware. 

The question for Milan fans, coronavirus break notwithstanding, is when another player can next live up to the number and make a name for themselves.