Milanello Sports Centre ('' it, Centro Sportivo Milanello''), commonly referred to as simply Milanello, is the
training facility of Italian
football
Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kicking a ball to score a goal. Unqualified, the word ''football'' normally means the form of football that is the most popular where the word is used. Sports commonly c ...
club
A.C. Milan
Associazione Calcio Milan (), commonly referred to as AC Milan or simply Milan, is a professional Association football, football club in Milan, Italy, founded in 1899. The club has spent its entire history, with the exception of the 1980–81 ...
. Built in 1963,
the centre consists of , including a pinewood and a little lake. It is located between the towns of
Carnago
Carnago is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Varese in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northwest of Milan and about south of Varese. As of 31 December 2004, it had a population of 5,831 and an area of .All demographics a ...
,
Cassano Magnago
Cassano Magnago is a town and ''comune'' in the province of Varese, Lombardy, Italy
Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the M ...
and
Cairate
Cairate is a ''comune'' (municipality) in the Province of Varese in the Italian region Lombardy, located about northwest of Milan and about south of Varese.
Cairate borders the following municipalities: Carnago, Cassano Magnago
Cassano Magna ...
, in the
province of Varese
The province of Varese ( it, provincia di Varese) is a Provinces of Italy, province in the region of Lombardy in northern Italy. Its capital is the city of Varese (population of 80,857 inhabitants), but its largest city is Busto Arsizio. The head ...
, about 40 km northwest of
Milan
Milan ( , , Lombard: ; it, Milano ) is a city in northern Italy, capital of Lombardy, and the second-most populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of about 1.4 million, while its metropolitan city h ...
.
Milanello currently represents an important asset not only for the Milan Club, but for the whole Italian football system. This was indeed the objective pursued by
Andrea Rizzoli
Andrea Rizzoli (Milan, September 16, 1914 - Nice, May 31, 1983) was an Italian entrepreneur, publisher and film producer. He was the son of Angelo Rizzoli, president of the publishing house RCS MediaGroup, the first Italian publishing group in the ...
who decided to build it. The facilities of Milanello have often been used also by the
Italian Football Federation
The Italian Football Federation ( it, Federazione Italiana Giuoco Calcio; FIGC), known colloquially as ''Federcalcio'', is the governing body of football in Italy. It is based in Rome and the technical department is in Coverciano, Florence.
It ...
for the preparation of the National Team’s important competitions, such as the European Championships in 1988, 1996 and 2000.
At Milanello there are six regular pitches, 1 in synthetic grass (35 m x 30), 1 covered pitch with synthetic ground (42 m x 24) and a small-sized outdoor pitch in grass named "cage" because the playing field is surrounded by a 2,30 m high wall and topped by 2,5 m high fencing. Inside the cage, the play never stops, with the ball always in motion in order to enhance the speed of execution. A path running through the woods ca. 1,200 m long at various altitudes is used during the season for the players’ physical training (running and biking) and for the recovery of injured players. The main building of the centre is a two-floor building (plus the basement) hosting the offices, the players’ rooms, the chimney room, a TV-room, a pool-room; a bar, a kitchen, two dining-rooms, the press room, the meeting room, the laundry, the ironing-room and the medical centre. Next to the main building the "guest-quarters" are located, where a few players from the Youth Department also live. These youngsters, coming from various parts of Italy and from abroad too, go to school as all other teenagers and in the afternoons attend their training sessions on the field made available to them.
References
External links
Milanelloat acmilan.com
{{A.C. Milan
A.C. Milan
Milanello
Milanello Sports Centre ('' it, Centro Sportivo Milanello''), commonly referred to as simply Milanello, is the training facility of Italian football club A.C. Milan. Built in 1963, the centre consists of , including a pinewood and a little lake. I ...