San Siro Turns 100 as Costacurta Calls It 'Beautiful but Not Functional'

Milan's San Siro turns 100 this weekend, and Alessandro Costacurta, one of the greatest players to grace it, has used the anniversary to reflect on what the stadium is and what it has become. According to the Guardian's football desk, Costacurta described the ground as "an icon — it's incredibly beautiful but it's not functional", confirming that the structure will soon be torn down. The former Milan defender, who won seven Serie A titles and five European Cups at the club, is among the most decorated figures to have called it home.

Costacurta's first experience of the stadium, he told the Guardian, lasted 15 minutes. He was not playing, but watching from the stands as a boy, and the noise and power of the place made an impression he has carried through a career that spanned more than two decades. The Guardian frames the centenary as a moment of reckoning rather than celebration: the stadium's architectural value and its practical failings now sit in open tension.