He helped Milan to a Serie A title, their first in eight years, and also won the Italian Super Cup. However, it was on the international stage where he was going to shine brightest.
The new era of "Total Football" for Holland had arrived and they strolled into the European Championships of 1988 looking for Holland's first major international title. A van Basten inspired side did just that. He scored five goals, including a spectacular volley from a near impossible angle.
That was enough to see him named top scorer, and help guide Holland back to the top of international football. That year, van Basten won the Dutch Footballer of the Year award, European Footballer of the Year award and the World Footballer of the Year award, narrowly beating team-mates and fellow Dutchmen Rijkaard and Gullit in an unprecedented clean sweep by a nation.
1989 picked up where '88 left off, as van Basten helped Milan to the Intercontinental Cup, the European Super Cup, and the European Cup, in which he was the top scorer of. More individual honours rolled his way as he was once more voted both Dutch Footballer of the Year and European Footballer of the Year.
The next season provided yet more awards for van Basten and Milan. He guided his team to a second successive European Cup, and finished as top scorer in Serie A. Internationally, however, it didn't go too well.
Much was expected of the impressive Dutch side, and many were asking if they could go one better than the original "Total Footballers" and win the World Cup. The answer was no. A disappointing tournament saw them be dumped out in the second round by West Germany.
The following season was a trophy-less one for Milan, and reported falling outs between van Basten and manager Arrigo Sacchi led to Sacchi being sacked. His replacement was Fabio Capello, and a new, successful era at Milan had begun.
By the end of the 1991/92 season, Capello had guided Milan to an unbeaten season, and to a Serie A title, with van Basten again the star man, finishing as the league's top scorer.
At the 1992 European Championships, van Basten helped Holland to a semi-final spot where they met Denmark. The match went to a penalty shoot-out, in which van Basten had his penalty saved by Peter Schmeichel. Denmark went on to win the shoot-out and the tournament.
Despite the penalty miss, van Basten was once again voted World Footballer of the Year and European Footballer of the Year. This made him only the third player to have won the Ballon d'Or three times, the other two being his mentor Johan Cruyff and France's Michel Platini.
Milan went on to extend their unbeaten run to 58 games, but van Basten experienced more injury troubles with the ankle that had plagued him throughout his career. The injuries had taken their toll on him and it was obvious in the European Cup final in 1993 that van Basten wasn't his usual self.
This ultimately unsuccessful match turned out to be van Basten's last in competitive football as a player, as he retired from football, aged just 30. He finished with 90 league goals in 147 league games for Milan, and 122 in 195 in all competitions.
His total career stats of 274 goals in 367 appearances are almost unparalleled for the phenomenal strike rate.
Injury cruelly cut his remarkable career short, but he will forever be remembered as the magical striker capable of magical strikes, and the man with one of the best strike-rates in World Football. This has been a tribute to van Basten.
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