Milan legend Franco Baresi has died at the age of 66, the club have announced.
A club statement read: "Announcing the loss of someone who embodied the heart and soul of AC Milan is incredibly difficult. But everyone at the club and all the Milanisti must live up to Franco Baresi's memory.
"We must be strong and gather every bit of energy, even at this saddest of times. We lost Franco only a few months after his last public appearance in a packed San Siro, at the Milan Winter Olympics opening ceremony [in February], an event on the world stage he helped make unforgettable."
Franco Baresi: One of the all-time greats
News of Baresi's death has prompted tributes from across the game.
The former centre-back was an honorary vice-president of AC Milan, and last year underwent surgery to remove a nodule in his lung.
A one-club man, Baresi claimed his first Serie A title with Milan in his breakthrough season in 1978/79 and twice helped the club earn promotion back to Serie A after t hey were initially relegated due to the club's involvement in the 1980 match-fixing scandal.
By the time he hung up his boots in 1997, Baresi had won a World Cup with Italy and another five Scudetti with Milan, the last of which came in 1996, as well as playing a key role in the club becoming European champions three times. Baresi lifted all of those club trophies as captain, as well as skippering Italy to the 1994 World Cup final.
Baresi will forever be recognised as one of the greatest centre-backs of all time, and is one of the most frequent picks in FourFourTwo's decades-long Perfect XI feature, which asks players to select the best 11 players to make up their dream team.
The centre-back was an inspiration to a whole generation of defenders. Tony Adams, Marcel Desailly, Ronald Koeman, Ruud Gullit and Jamie Carragher were just a few of the number who selected Baresi, while Rio Ferdinand told the Guardian in 2009: "I'd love to be the player he was, bloody hell."
Baresi was also feared and respected by centre-forwards, including Gary Lineker, while Gianfranco Zola named Baresi as one of the two toughest defenders he ever faced in his career.
Baresi's protege and teammate Paolo Maldini - himself one of the all-time greats - meanwhile hailed Baresi as his 'role model', telling Carragher in 2015: "He was special. He was a short, skinny guy but so strong. He could jump so high. The way he played on the field was an example for everybody.
"He wasn’t a big speaker, [but] the way he played, the way he trained was an example. He wasn’t like Jaap Stam, a big guy who was strong and fast. He had pace, but he was only 70kg.
"But let me tell you – when he hit you with a tackle, he was so strong. For me, he was the role model. He was a reference.
"He was also very good with the ball. Very, very good. It is very hard to find a good defender, who is strong and good with the ball. Very hard."
Following news of Baresi's death, Maldini wrote on Instagram: "You protected me when I was a child, guided me as a young man, and inspired me as an adult. You were the greatest footballer I ever had the honour of playing with."
