AC Milan announced their return to the big time on Sunday after winning their first Serie A title in over a decade and putting years of decline firmly behind them.
Seven-time champions of Europe, Milan are one of the continent’s biggest clubs but spent most of the last 10 years in the doldrums as a shifting football landscape left them way behind a new elite.
Under flamboyant former owner Silvio Berlusconi Milan pioneered tactical innovations and — backed by the media magnate’s open wallet – stacked the team with expensive foreign stars who pushed an already famous club into a new stratosphere.
Five of Milan’s European crowns came in the Berlusconi era but the club was forced to tighten its belt in the years after their last league title in 2011, and in the same period a host of star names were either sold or stepped aside.