“Through the Milan Foundation, I came to understand poverty. In Kenya, I found myself playing in the streets with the children… These experiences have made me the person I am today.”
Franco Baresi, the great captain of Milan and the Italian national team, spoke of his deep emotion whilst in the Korogocho slum in Nairobi, in his final interview, before his health took a turn for the worse, leading to yesterday’s tragic outcome.
Baresi, as an ambassador for the Milan Foundation, arrived in the Kenyan capital in July 2011 and visited the project run by the NGO Alice For Children, led by former MP Diego Masi. Together with the Milan Foundation, Alice For Children and the Grapesyard Organisation, they organised a unique and special tournament for children from the slums of Nairobi: Kibera, Korogocho, Mathare and Kariobangi – called the “AC Milan Slums Championship”
It is Masi himself who recalls his immense, unassuming humanity.
“I met Franco when he came to inaugurate a home for our orphans,” Masi tells Malindikenya.net, “along with his son and Rocco Giorgianni, secretary-general of the Milan Foundation. To show our gratitude, we organised the first slum championship in Korogocho.  The final was attended by 5,000 people, including the Italian ambassador, Paola Imperiale. It was a real success.”
Baresi carried that African experience in his heart right to the very end.
“I found in him a sincere concern for the most vulnerable,” Masi recalls, “a man of few words – sometimes blunt, but always straight to the point. You could sense both his leadership and his humility. A strange combination that was astonishing. Always kind and attentive. A true Captain. We met up often. I always admired him.”
To honour the Captain of us all, including the most vulnerable, the Alice For Children women’s football team wanted to pay their respects and played a match in his memory in Korogocho.