With AC Milan being in the same Champions League group as Chelsea this season, it seems that more than ever we’ve constantly been hearing about news linking the two teams. For instance, there’s been the many recent reports about how the two clubs are due to resume talks on 3 players that might well be on their way to Milan from the London side, come the next transfer window.
Intriguingly, the two clubs haven’t actually faced each other much at all, with these two group games being the first time they’ve played one another for 23 years. However, even though there have been hardly any battles between each other on the pitch, the two clubs do share an interesting history. This is because there has been an amazing array of fabulous players who have pulled on both the black and red of Milan and also the royal blue of Chelsea, during their careers.
Just some of the many names include Ruud Gullit, Marcel Desailly, George Weah, Michael Essien, Hernan Crespo, Andriy Shevchenko, Alexandro Pato and Gonzalo Higuain. It’s honestly quite staggering just how many quality footballers have managed to showcase their skills both at the San Siro and also at Stamford Bridge, throughout the years. So, to make it a bit easier, let’s just focus on the two examples who are still playing on each team.
The freshest move has been Frenchman Oliver Giroud, with the veteran striker making the jump to Italy straight from Chelsea in the summer transfer window of 2021. The now 36-year-old had spent a super successful 3 seasons at Chelsea, where he played 75 times in total, and although he didn’t score that many goals in that time, he still became a firm fan favourite. That’s because many of the 17 goals that he did net were hugely significant, including the incredible bicycle kick against Atletico Madrid, which helped set the club on the way to their Champions League win that year in Porto.
It’s not just the Chelsea fans who adore the man that was part of France’s 2018 World Cup winning team though, as Giroud continued his knack for scoring immensely important goals here in Italy. With his poked strike away at Napoli back in March, which pulled the Rossoneri to the summit of Serie A and his brace against Sassuolo in May, which helped capture the first title win for 11 years, being some of the most notable.
One of the major forces of that last Scudetto win, which came back in 2011, was the centre-back Thiago Silva. The Brazilian had 3 years at the San Siro, where his masterful defending helped capture that title, and a Suppercoppa win. After moving to the French giants Paris Saint Germain, where he stayed for 8 seasons, Silva decided to move to the Premier League for a new challenge, and he signed on a free for Chelsea in the summer of 2020.
Despite now being 38-years-old, Silva’s reading of the game allows him to still be an important player in the back line for the Blues, where his classy interceptions and perfectly timed tackles, consistently result in his name ringing down from the jubilant Chelsea fans inside the stands at Stamford Bridge.
Although it seems like a title challenge will be too far for his side this season, Silva will be hoping to claim a World Cup win with his national side at the upcoming World Cup. The online bookmakers seem to predict that this could well be the case, as Brazil are the current favourites to win the trophy, with them being priced at 9/2 at the time of writing.
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