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Having already beaten Juventus to become champions of Europe the season before, Milan then stripped the Bianconeri of their Scudetto by storming to the 2003-04 Serie A title.
Both the Old Lady and Roma had done their best to keep up with Carlo Ancelotti’s side but there was no stopping the resurgent Rossoneri, who won the league by a whopping 11 points, losing just twice along the way.
Kaka was their inspiration, with the Brazilian having surprised everyone by the way in which he rapidly adapted to the Italian game, but this was a truly tremendous team. Cafu had slotted seamlessly into a brilliant back four alongside the iconic Italian trio of Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Nesta and Alessandro Costacurta.
Clarence Seedorf, Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso formed one of the most complete midfield trios of the modern era, while Kaka and Rui Costa provided the bullets for the lethal Andriy Shevchenko to fire Milan to a first Scudetto in five years.
CHANGES
Milan had paid Sao Paulo €8.8 million for Kaka, with club owner Silvio Berlusconi describing the fee as “peanuts”. He wasn’t wrong, with the silky trequartista going on to prove himself one of the greatest signings in the Rossoneri’s history. However, getting Cafu on a free transfer following the expiration of his Roma contract was also an excellent and pivotal piece of business.
Elsewhere, Inter realised that they had erred badly in allowing Adriano to join Parma on a permanent transfer, so they brought him back to San Siro in January 2004, at a cost of €24.8m.
Inter had sold Hernan Crespo to Chelsea at the start of the season, bringing in another Argentine, Julio Cruz, as a replacement, while the Nerazzurri also picked up a couple of wingers in Andy van der Meyde and Kily Gonzalez.
Roma added Christian Chivu, John Carew and Amantino Mancini, while the still cash-strapped Lazio took a punt on former Milan midfielder Demetrio Albertini.
The most intriguing transfer, though, was undoubtedly Perugia’s now…
Source link : https://www.footballcritic.com/season-reviews/kaka-conquers-milan-italian-football-serie-a-2003-04/108
Author : [email protected] (Martin Macdonald)
Publish date : 2024-07-25 13:00:00
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