The Founders

The AC Milan football club was estabilished on the 16th of December 1899, its parents being three Englishman, Kilpin, Allison and Davies. They came to the idea when they were at a pint of beer, and they proposed it to two bussinesmen, Edwards and Nathan, and to another person, Mr. Barnett. Edwards was to become the first club president ever of the new Milan Cricket and Football Club.

The club aimed to play cricket as much as they could and to promote the game of football, not so popular in those times. In the first board of directors was also Pierro Pirelli, one of the future presidents of the club and also one of its most important historical figures. The establishment of the club spread into the city and Milan started to gain more and more supporters.

The new club registered with the IFF (Italian Football Federation) and, to take part in the championship, they needed a pitch for the home matches. The site was found: the place of today's central station, Trotter. There was an open countryside field at that time there.

The opening match was played against another team from Milan named Mediolanum. The game was played on the 11th of March 1900 and Milan started its history with a great 3-0 win. The first team who played for AC Milan was: Hoode, Cignaghi, Torretta, Lees, Kilpin, Valerio, Dubini, Davies, Neville, Allison, Formenti. You can see here that three of them were the club establishers , Kilpin, Allison and Davies. Although the 3-0 win was a good score for their morale, the Devils first official match, who was played on 15 April 1900 against FC Torino, was lost with 3-0.

The first captain in AC Milan's history was Herbert Kilpin, one of the founders and through the club's best players. In the early Milan days you needed to be a member of the club. The fees were 20 lira and 12 lira for the students. The punishment for the players who had forgotten to pay was the interdiction to train. The first title for AC Milan was won in their second year of activity, 1901.