AC Milan

On a quiet road in Nottingham, England, sits the Kilpin pub. It is named after a local lace worker.

A local lace worker who moved to Italy.

A local lace worker who moved to Italy and set up a football club.

That club was called AC Milan. This was in 1899.

So, let's cross over to Serie A, retrace the steps of old Kilpin, and #GetTheBadgeIn for

@acmilan

.

The St George's Cross on the emblem is the clearest nod to its English founder. That said, its adoption is more of a happy coincidence, as the flag is also the city symbol of Milan itself! Surely then, it was a no-brainer that Kilpin’s new team should adopt it.

To trace the origins of the red cross in Milan, we have to go back a bit. About 2,200 years.

Milan was a growing city in 222 BCE when it was captured by an expanding power to the south from a place called Rome. By all accounts, these "Romans" (for want of a better word) did rather well for themselves. So much so that, eventually, they needed to divide the administration of their vast empire among the Italian cities under their control. Milan—or Mediolanum, as they called it—was made the capital of the Western Roman Empire, overseeing regions such as Gaul (France), Britanniae (England), and Hispaniae (Spain).

It flourished as a political and economic centre and later became the heart of the Lombardy region of northern Italy, following its conquest by the Lombards, who descended from Germany to pick at the remains of the fallen Roman Empire.

The city-state of Milan first adopted the red cross on a white background around 500 years later, when it appeared on something called the Carroccio. This large wooden platform, which resembled a float at a village fair, began life as a chariot before evolving into the symbolic emblem of Milan's government. For centuries, it was wheeled into battle as a rallying point for Milanese soldiers.

In the Battle of Legnano (1176), the Carroccio played a central role. The Holy Roman Emperor, the famous Frederick Barbarossa, had marched his armies into northern Italy to seize control of its city-states. Determined to remain independent, the city-states hastily formed an alliance under Pope Alexander III, known as the Lombard League.

At Legnano, the two sides clashed in fierce combat around the Carroccio, draped in red and white. According to legend, it was defended by the "Company of Death"—900 young knights who pledged to die rather than see the Carroccio fall into enemy hands.

Milan won. The red and white cross of Milan still flew proudly over the blood-splattered battlefield. Barbarossa withdrew and later sued for peace.

Now, while I appreciate a good lace worker from Nottingham as much as the next man—you have to admit, this is a far cooler origin story.

That said, the truest nod to AC Milan's English roots is the very name—AC Milan. Milan is the English spelling of the city's true name, Milano. They kept the English version.

As for the red and black stripes, these were simply chosen to represent the team’s fiery spirit (red) and the fear (black) they struck into their opponents. Their nickname, the Rossoneri, simply means "the red and blacks." In the 1960s, they even adopted a devil logo to complement the colour scheme.

So, that’s AC Milan—a club that packs out the 80,000-seater San Siro every weekend, built on a foundation of English devils and Milanese Companies of Death, all willing to die for the badge.