Skip to content
Milan Club Adelaide crestMilan Club Adelaide

Il Museo Rossonero · Archive

AC Milan in 1908

Era: The Split & San Siro

7 stories and 31 matches from the Milan Club Adelaide history museum, in the order they happened.

Open the interactive timelineRead the 1908 chronicle

The stories of 1908

from 1908

Il Derby della Madonnina: the golden Virgin, Casciavit and Bauscia

Italians christened the Milan–Inter clash the Derby della Madonnina, after la Madonnina — the gilded statue of the Virgin Mary that has crowned the Duomo since 1774 and watches over both halves of the city. The name reframes the fixture as a family quarrel beneath a shared patron rather than a war between strangers: both curve claim her protection, and so the derby becomes less a match between two clubs than an argument over who truly owns Milano. Milanese lore long cast the two supports in class terms rendered in dialect — Milan as the club of the 'casciavit' (the screwdrivers, the honest working class) and Inter as the 'bauscia' (the boastful, moneyed set). Whether myth or memory, the rivalry born of the 1908 schism became one of football's fiercest, contested since 1908 and staged in a shared San Siro since Inter became co-tenants in 1947.

Sources

  • it.wikipedia.org — Derby di Milano
  • it.wikipedia.org — Storia dell'A.C. Milan
  • La Gazzetta dello Sport
  • magliarossonera.it
  • en.wikipedia.org — Derby della Madonnina

Open the interactive timeline →

early 1900s

Il Guerin Sportivo — the satirical eye on Milanese football

Founded in Turin in 1912, Guerin Sportivo established itself as Italy's great satirical and literary sporting weekly, and across the century it turned its caricaturist's pen on Milan's stars and stumbles alike. Its covers rendered rossoneri idols and rivals as cartoon protagonists, and its irreverent features gave Italian fans a wry counter-narrative to Gazzetta's ceremonial tone. To be lampooned on a "Guerino" cover became, in its own way, a mark of a player's fame — a rite that captains and champions of Milan passed through for generations.

Sources

  • Guerin Sportivo
  • it.wikipedia.org — Storia dell'A.C. Milan

Open the interactive timeline →

circa 1908

Kilpin steps away from the field

As the new decade dawned, Herbert Kilpin gradually withdrew from the playing side he had captained for a decade, his body worn by years of pioneering, uncompromising football. He remained a beloved and eccentric figure around Milan — the Englishman of legend said to keep a bottle of whisky hidden by the touchline for a swig at half-time — but by the 1908 split that gave birth to Internazionale, the founder's playing days were all but done. What followed was a quiet fade into obscurity: he stayed in Milan, married to a local woman, working and living modestly as the club he founded grew beyond him and the very idea of an English founder slipped from popular memory. Robert Nieri's biography dwells on this melancholy fade — the pioneer outliving his own fame, watching Italian football professionalise around him while he drifted from view.

Sources

Open the interactive timeline →

1908 onward

The Long Drought Begins

Milan entered the twentieth century as Italian football royalty, champions in 1901, the year they finally broke Genoa's iron monopoly, and again in 1906 and 1907. Then came the schism of 1908, and with it a descent into the wilderness. Diminished and soon eclipsed by newer powers, the rossoneri would not lift the Scudetto again for more than four decades, waiting until 1951 to reclaim the summit. Three titles in seven glittering years gave way to a forty-four-year famine.

Sources

Open the interactive timeline →

Prima Categoria 1908

1907-08: The boycott and the birth of Inter

The reigning champions played no championship at all in 1908: Milan, together with Genoa and Torino, deserted the tournament in protest at the federation's ban on foreign players, and Pro Vercelli took the first of their titles in the champions' absence. The deeper wound was internal — on 9 March 1908 a group of dissident members, favourable to fielding foreigners, broke away to found Football Club Internazionale, giving birth to the Derby della Madonnina.

Sources

  • RSSSF Italian championship archives
  • magliarossonera.it
  • Almanacco Illustrato del Calcio (Panini)

Open the interactive timeline →

9 March 1908

The Great Schism — Internazionale is Born

On the evening of 9 March 1908, forty-four men gathered around a long table at the Ristorante L'Orologio, a few steps from La Scala, and tore the Milan Cricket and Football Club in two. The quarrel was over identity: for 1908 the federation had barred foreign players from the championship to promote home-grown football, and the parent club's growing preference for Italian players chafed on a faction who wished to keep fielding stranieri. The dissenters walked out and founded Football Club Internazionale — a name that proudly proclaimed their willingness to field foreigners freely alongside Italians. Milan, in protest, boycotted that year's official championship and contested only unofficial tournaments. In a single night the city gained a second club, a shade of black-and-blue to answer the rossoneri, and the seed of the Derby della Madonnina — the fiercest rivalry in Italian football, the fixture that would define both clubs for more than a century. Milan and its estranged offspring would be bound together in enmity forever.

Sources

Open the interactive timeline →

18 October 1908

The First Derby della Madonnina

Only months after a breakaway faction founded Football Club Internazionale in a row over the signing of foreign players, the two Milanese clubs met for the very first time on 18 October 1908 in the Chiasso Cup, contested across the Swiss border. It was the Rossoneri who drew first blood, winning 2-1. So began the Derby della Madonnina, named for the golden Madonnina atop the Duomo that watches over both halves of the city, and one of football's fiercest and most storied rivalries. Forza Milan.

Sources

Open the interactive timeline →

Every match of 1908

  1. Friendly: Milan 1-3 Torino

    12 January 1908 · Season 1907-08 (friendly match): Milan lost to Torino 1-3 at Campo Milan di Porta Monforte, Milano on 12 January 1908.

  2. Friendly: Milan 2-3 Torino

    19 January 1908 · Season 1907-08 (friendly match): Milan lost to Torino 2-3 at Campo Milan di Porta Monforte, Milano on 19 January 1908.

  3. Friendly: Genoa 4-3 Milan

    26 January 1908 · Season 1907-08 (friendly match): Milan lost to Genoa 3-4 at Ponte Carrega, Genova on 26 January 1908.

  4. Coppa "Eugenio Bona": Pro Vercelli 3-0 Milan

    9 February 1908 · Season 1907-08 (coppa "eugenio bona" match): Milan lost to Pro Vercelli 0-3 at Biella on 9 February 1908. Reti: Bertinetti (3).

  5. Palla Dapples: Milan 1-0 Genoa

    16 February 1908 · Season 1907-08 (palla dapples match): Milan beat Genoa 1-0 at Campo Milan di Porta Monforte, Milano on 16 February 1908. Reti: Forlano.

  6. Palla Dapples: Genoa 1-3 Milan

    8 March 1908 · Season 1907-08 (palla dapples match): Milan beat Genoa 3-1 at Genova on 8 March 1908. Reti: rig. Hopf I, Gotzlof, ...., Zryd.

  7. Palla Dapples: Milan 2-1 Torino

    15 March 1908 · Season 1907-08 (palla dapples match): Milan beat Torino 2-1 at Campo Milan di Porta Monforte, Milano on 15 March 1908. Reti: 22' Forlano, 32' Al. Trer� I, Frey.

  8. Palla Dapples: Milan 1-1 Racing Libertas

    29 March 1908 · Season 1907-08 (palla dapples match): Milan drew with Racing Libertas 1-1 at Civica Arena, Milano on 29 March 1908. Reti: ...., 85' Lindsay.

  9. Friendly: Milan 4-3 Narc. Sp. Montreaux

    12 April 1908 · Season 1907-08 (friendly match): Milan beat Narc. Sp. Montreaux 4-3 at Campo Milan di Porta Monforte, Milano on 12 April 1908. Reti: 8' Montheit,.

  10. Coppa "Eugenio Bona": Milan 2-3 Club Francais Paris

    19 April 1908 · Season 1907-08 (coppa "eugenio bona" match): Milan lost to Club Francais Paris 2-3 at Civica Arena, Milano on 19 April 1908. Reti: Al. Trer� I, ...., Du Rheart, 75' C. Bianchi, Canelle.

  11. Coppa "Eugenio Bona": Milan 2-1 Old Boys Basilea

    20 April 1908 · Season 1907-08 (coppa "eugenio bona" match): Milan beat Old Boys Basilea 2-1 at Civica Arena, Milano on 20 April 1908. Reti: Winter, Pedroni I, rig. Hopf I.

  12. Palla Dapples: Milan 3-0 Genoa

    26 April 1908 · Season 1907-08 (palla dapples match): Milan beat Genoa 3-0 at Civica Arena, Milano on 26 April 1908.

  13. Medaglia D'Oro "Comune Di Milano": Milan 1-0 Racing Libertas

    17 May 1908 · Season 1907-08 (medaglia d'oro "comune di milano" match): Milan beat Racing Libertas 1-0 at Campo Libertas-Via Malghera, Milano on 17 May 1908.

  14. Medaglia D'Oro "Comune Di Milano": Milan 7-1 Trevigliese

    24 May 1908 · Season 1907-08 (medaglia d'oro "comune di milano" match): Milan beat Trevigliese 7-1 at Campo Libertas-Via Malghera, Milano on 24 May 1908.

  15. Medaglia D'Oro "Comune Di Milano": Milan 1-0 U.S. Milanese

    31 May 1908 · Season 1907-08 (medaglia d'oro "comune di milano" match): Milan beat U.S. Milanese 1-0 at Campo Libertas-Via Malghera, Milano on 31 May 1908.

  16. Medaglia D'Oro "Comune Di Milano": Milan 10-0 Genoa B

    7 June 1908 · Season 1907-08 (medaglia d'oro "comune di milano" match): Milan beat Genoa B 10-0 at Campo Libertas-Via Malghera, Milano on 7 June 1908.

  17. Departed: Giuseppe Rizzi

    1908-09 season window · Giuseppe Rizzi left Milan in the 1908-09 season (window date approximate; fee as recorded by Transfermarkt).

  18. Signed: Pietro Lana

    1908-09 season window · Pietro Lana joined Milan in the 1908-09 season (window date approximate; fee as recorded by Transfermarkt).

  19. Coppa Casteggio (Coppa Negrotto): Casteggio 0-4 Milan

    20 September 1908 · Season 1908-09 (coppa casteggio (coppa negrotto) match): Milan beat Casteggio 4-0 at Casteggio on 20 September 1908.

  20. Coppa Casteggio (Coppa Negrotto): Milan 6-1 Ausonia Milano

    20 September 1908 · Season 1908-09 (coppa casteggio (coppa negrotto) match): Milan beat Ausonia Milano 6-1 at Casteggio on 20 September 1908.

  21. Coppa Lugano: Chiasso 1-2 Milan

    27 September 1908 · Season 1908-09 (coppa lugano match): Milan beat Chiasso 2-1 at Lugano (Svizzera) on 27 September 1908. Reti: ...., Lana, Forlano.

  22. Coppa Lugano: Juventus Bellinzona 0-3 Milan

    27 September 1908 · Season 1908-09 (coppa lugano match): Milan beat Juventus Bellinzona 3-0 at Lugano (Svizzera) on 27 September 1908. Reti: Lana (2), Forlano.

  23. Friendly: Ausonia Milano 2-0 Milan

    11 October 1908 · Season 1908-09 (friendly match): Milan lost to Ausonia Milano 0-2 at Milano on 11 October 1908.

  24. Coppa Gotzloff: Genoa 4-2 Milan

    25 October 1908 · Season 1908-09 (coppa gotzloff match): Milan lost to Genoa 2-4 at San Gottardo, Genova on 25 October 1908. Reti: Herzog (3), Lana, Forlano, .....

  25. Palla Dapples: Milan 2-1 Juventus

    8 November 1908 · Season 1908-09 (palla dapples match): Milan beat Juventus 2-1 at Campo di Via Bronzetti, Milano on 8 November 1908. Reti: ...., Lana, Al. Trer� I.

  26. Palla Dapples: Milan 0-2 Pro Vercelli

    15 November 1908 · Season 1908-09 (palla dapples match): Milan lost to Pro Vercelli 0-2 at Campo di Via Bronzetti, Milano on 15 November 1908. Reti: 32' Visconti, 50' Fresia.

  27. Palla Dapples: Torino 5-0 Milan

    22 November 1908 · Season 1908-09 (palla dapples match): Milan lost to Torino 0-5 on 22 November 1908. Reti: Kempher, Capra (3), Zuffi II.

  28. Friendly: Milan 0-0 Zurigo

    6 December 1908 · Season 1908-09 (friendly match): Milan drew with Zurigo 0-0 at Campo di Via Bronzetti, Milano on 6 December 1908.

  29. Friendly: Milan 2-1 Zurigo

    7 December 1908 · Season 1908-09 (friendly match): Milan beat Zurigo 2-1 at Campo Milan - Porta Monforte, Milano on 7 December 1908. Reti: 10' Trer� I, 42' Allemann, 89' Pedroni I.

  30. Friendly: Milan 3-1 Internazionale

    20 December 1908 · Season 1908-09 (friendly match): Milan beat Internazionale 3-1 at Campo di Via Bronzetti, Milano on 20 December 1908.

  31. Friendly: Milan 1-0 Piemonte

    27 December 1908 · Season 1908-09 (friendly match): Milan beat Piemonte 1-0 at Campo di Via Bronzetti, Milano on 27 December 1908. Reti: Al. Trer� I.