AC Milan win their first league title less than two years after the Club's founding
Here were the Rossoneri, conceived and founded by Herbert Kilpin, finally competing for the Italian title at the beginning of the century. The start of an adventure. There were fans on the sidelines and no nets in the goals. There were even doubts that the first qualifier between AC Milan and Mediolanum, the first Milanese derby in history, was really a league match, with some historians believing it to be a friendly. Then, however, AC Milan met Juventus in the semi-final, with the Bianconeri having overcome Ginnastica Torino to progress.
After the 2-0 win against Mediolanum, the Rossoneri players weren’t ‘available’ (clearly they had other work commitments or transport problems) to play the semi-final in Turin against Juve, so it was moved from 21 to 28 April 1901. Nasi from Turin was the referee and AC Milan had twice been behind, 1-0 down then 2-1 down, before winning 3-2 thanks to Herbert Kilpin’s decisive goal. So, the time had come to face Genoa in the final: for years the records stated that AC Milan had won 1-0 at Genoa, but the result from 5 May 1901 was actually 3-0 to the Rossoneri. The ‘tricolore’ Scudetto didn’t exist at that point, but for all intents and purposes, AC Milan were Italian champions.
