Nesta, Inzaghi, Gettuso, Kaka or Pirlo

Who screams MORE Milan to you? This conversation isnt about your favorite player, etc. Who will be remembered as MILAN legend when we're telling our kids about our glorious team 30 years from now on.

Gattuso for me. The rest all had iconic moments in other clubs and although they will be remembered as Milan legends they weren't as exclusively Milan as he was IMO. If you say his name to anyone the first image that would pop into their mind would be him going into a crazy tackle, in a Milan shirt.

Great thread!!

NESTAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Definitely Gattuso for me, from shackling Ronaldo to poking Joe Jordan, the guy is the embodiment of that golden generation for me

It's an excellent question, one that really could have many different answers.

I certainly agree with @Cruijf's statement that Gattuso is the only player who screams Milan only. He wasn't a one-club player but while his path to Milan involved minor or foreign clubs, both Nesta and Inzaghi played for very major Serie A rivals and excelled. They will rightly be remembered for their contributions to Milan though but Gattuso's story is only about Milan.

Pirlo will probably go down as the greatest of the bunch but he will no longer go down simply as a Milan legend. He'll be as well remembered for his exploits with Juventus - and the national side during both his Milan and Juventus stints - as his two CL wins with us.

Kaka's sharp decline greatly affects his legacy in my eyes. His knee issues were certainly no laughing matter but his inability to adjust his game afterwards was disappointing and even though he was decent on his return he shone so brightly but for so little time compared to the others who served us well into their 30s.

Who to pick in the end? I initially leapt towards Gattuso, who will always be one of my favourite players. Ambrosini was the captain we needed as the public face of the club. He gave off a sense of class and calm that presented well. Rino though was always the captain on the pitch and it showed at every moment. The fire he brought to the game was something unique to behold, a fight we've not seen since he departed.

I honestly think though that if we were to have this discussion again in twenty or thirty years, we'd focus on a different player though: Inzaghi.

Yes, he came from Juventus, where he even won the Scudetto. Yes, he was the coaching equivalent of Digao. Yes, we can only really picture him half naked nowadays thanks to Hans' inability to win a bet.

What he has over everyone else though is Athens. In a few decades we may well be speaking of the 2007 final as the last time Milan meant anything to the world at large. It was a final in which we purged the memory of 2005, which let Maldini lift the trophy one last time. It was a final won by two goals by Pippo. The goals were created by Pirlo and Kaka no doubt but in the end, he's the face we picture when we think of that game, spinning away to celebrate. It's his face attached to that final and it's a game which will continue to grow in significance the longer our dry spell continues.

Hopefully this theory is obliterated by some new success but given none of us our holding our breath about a takeover I think it's worth considering.

Paolo Maldini...

But on that list I think it is Gattuso. When I think of Gattuso I only think of Milan. When I think of the others, Juventus, Real Madrid and Lazio come to mind...

hard to say, all of those players have deep regards for Milan, Gattuso in particular

If you're talking about the great Milan team of the mid-00's, it's got to be Kaka, for me.

He is the one who will be remembered as being the key player, and when I think Kaka, I always think Milan, not Madrid or anywhere else he has played.