Milan was plunged into mourning as the city paid tribute to Italian football legend Franco Baresi at his funeral on Tuesday morning, after his death last week at the age of 66.

The AC Milan captain was named their Player of the Century in 1999 after spending the entirety of his 20-year career at the San Siro - including two stints in Serie B in the 1980s.

After he hung up his boots, the club retired the No6 shirt worn by their eternal 'Capitano', with the fans that lined the streets surrounding the venue for the ceremony at Basilica di Sant'Ambrogio waving replica jerseys in tribute.

Among those who attended the ceremony were some of Baresi's most famous team-mates, including his defensive partner and mentee Paolo Maldini.

The Milan icon and newly minted technical president of the Italian Football Federation arrived wearing dark glasses, alongside fellow Ballon d'Or winner Marco van Basten, who was later to act as a pallbearer for Baresi's coffin.

Roberto Baggio, Pietro Paolo Virdis, Mauro Tassotti, Clarence Seedorf, Demetrio Albertini, Alessandro Costacurta and Dida also made the pilgrimage to remember their late team-mate.

Also in attendance were Daniele Massaro, Roberto Donadoni, Filippo Galli, Angelo Colombo and Giovanni Galli, the Milan players who joined Van Basten in carrying Baresi's coffin into the church.

Costacurta, Virdis, Massimo Ambrosini, Marco Simone and Alberico Evani then accompanied the coffin out.

The current AC Milan cohort were represented by injured players Christian Pulisic and Santiago Gimenez, who are not on tour with the team currently undergoing pre-season in Australia.

The players will don black armbands in Perth on Wednesday when they play Inter Milan Down Under.

AC Milan chairman Paolo Scaroni and the club's owner RedBird's founder Gerry Cardinale were also in attendance, but booed on their arrival according to Gazzetta dello Sport.

When Baresi's coffin arrived, fans watching chanted 'there's only one captain' and 'you are forever Franco Baresi', before singing 'You'll Never Walk Alone'.

Baresi's former manager at Milan Fabio Capello was applauded as he arrived at the church, while ex-Milan players Dejan Savicevic and Daniele Massaro arrived bearing his white signed captain's armband.

A number of representatives from the Italian national team and other Serie A sides were also in attendance, including a cohort representing AC Milan's greatest rivals Inter Milan.

His former rival in blue and black - and great friend - Beppe Bergomi read the first reading once the ceremony began.

Bergomi had helped Baresi during his last public appearance, with the two legendary captains bringing the Olympic flame into the San Siro for the Winter Olympics Opening Ceremony in February.

The defender, long considered one of the best of all time, served as captain for 14 years, and helped Milan claim six Serie A titles and three European Cups among numerous other honours.

Baresi had initially been rejected by Inter Milan's academy as a junior player, after being deemed too small and frail for the rigorous demands of 1970s football, with his eventual rivals instead taking on his elder brother Giuseppe.

That twist of fate brought Baresi to Milan's academy, and he would go on to make his debut for the senior team at the age of 17 - after being given his nickname Piscinin by the club's masseur at the time, Paolo Mariconti, which means 'little one' in Milanese dialect.

Baresi stuck with AC Milan throughout the match-fixing Totonero scandal which saw the club relegated in 1980, and a second relegation in 1982, before going on to see Milan through their heavily decorated glory years under legendary managers Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello.

His role as the bedrock in Milan's all-Italian defence saw him written into the club's legend, and in 1989, named Ballon d'Or runner-up.

Baresi also won the World Cup with Italy in 1982 as a squad member, later coming heartbreakingly close to claiming a second when the Azzurri reached the final in 1994 before defeat to Brazil on penalties.

Baresi had previously undergone lung surgery in August 2025 to remove a pulmonary nodule, and later was treated with cancer-prevention immunotherapy.