Old Trafford and the Champions League mean a lot to AC Milan – and not just because of that penalty shootout triumph over Juventus there in the 2003 final.
Three years earlier, Fernando Redondo’s magnificent performance in Manchester for Real Madrid convinced AC Milan to buy him. They thought they were getting the best midfielder in the world, paying Real 15 million euros (about £13.5m) and Redondo three million euros for five years.
But Milan ended up with a crock and a medical determination to never again make a multi-million-pound mistake.
From there the club developed the famed Milan Lab, which is why tomorrow night, seven years on from that European triumph, no fewer than seven of Milan’s 2003 starting XI and three used substitutes will again be in their squad. Five of them: Dida, Nesta, Gattuso, Ambrosini and Pirlo are likely to start.
At the San Siro they do not doubt that such longevity is due to the Milan Lab and its appliance of science in the field of sports medicine. Longevity is the goal.
The man behind this is a 63-year-old Belgian chiropractor called Jean-Pierre Meersseman, and the likes of Paolo Maldini and David Beckham have testified on behalf of Meersseman’s methods.
‘The fundamental concept,’ Meersseman said more than a decade ago, ‘is to determine whether the players are whole. And physical wholeness is the daughter of three mothers: equilibrium, endurance and co-ordination.’
That may sound a touch Californian but Meersseman’s success is not in question. He was advising AC Milan in 1998 when he said that.
‘Since our model is deeply rooted in the philosophy, art and science of chiropractic, the medical staff were quite closed to the idea when I first arrived,’ said Meersseman of the cull. ‘So I had to fire the medical doctors who did not want to come on board.’
No longer was transfer money to be lost. Meersseman’s prudent idea was to predict injuries, prevent them and thereby extend careers. Kinesiology is one of his key words: the study of human movement.
‘Age doesn’t exist,’ he once told a Belgian interviewer. ‘What counts is that you are physically and psychologically ready to play. It doesn’t matter if you are 21 or 41.’
Now This is the kind of treatment i would want!, read the full article at the Daily Mail