Ranking Ruud Gullit and the Other Dutch Players to Play for AC Milan

Saturday marks 28 years since Silvio Berlusconi broke the international transfer record, spending £6 million to bring Ruud Gullit from PSV Eindhoven to AC Milan.

Along with Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard, Gullit formed a Dutch triumvirate that propelled the team to three league titles and two European Cups. The three masters initiated something of a history in the club. Since their tenure, the squad has often included a Dutch player.

To commemorate the anniversary of Gullit's arrival, we'll rate him and his countrymen who have played for Milan.

In order to simplify things, the focus of our efforts will be on players who have appeared in 100 or more games—in all competitions—for the club. We will recognize a few honorable mentions who didn't reach the 100 cap mark for their shorter-term contribution.

Who is the best of the Dutch to play for AC Milan? Let's take a closer look to find out.

Honorable Mentions

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Stam came to Milan after his successful stint at Lazio and saw the Champions League final.

Jaap Stam

Arriving shortly after Euro 2004 following a successful three-year stint with Lazio, Stam gave the Rossoneri a solid defensive presence next to Alessandro Nesta from 2004 to '06. He started the ill-fated 2005 Champions League final against Liverpool and appeared in 65 games over all competitions.

Nigel de Jong

One of the few bright spots in what is shaping up to be a very fallow era in club history.

Mark van Bommel

The hard man was a favorite of Max Allegri. He played a large role on Milan's most recent title-winning team and in the runner-up finish the next year.

5. Urby Emanuelson

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Emanuelson's versatility ended up working against him.

The outlier on this list, Urby Emanuelson was a product of the vaunted Ajax youth system. He came up through the club's ranks with the likes of John Heitinga, Maarten Stekelenberg and Wesley Sneijder. He had been a first-team regular for six years when he was purchased by Milan in the January 2011 transfer window.

A talented player, Emanuelson's chief value was his versatility. He was a Swiss Army knife of a player who could play on either flank in defense, either wing in attack as an attacking midfielder or as a more holding mid.

That versatility is probably what held him back from being better than he was. Never able to settle into one position, Emanuelson was instead plugged into wherever then-Milan manager Massimiliano Allegri had a hole that needed to be filled that day.

Never able to settle into one role, new arrivals eventually filled every spot he was capable of playing in before he could make a mark on them.

Overall, Emanuelson played 106 times for the Rossoneri but never scored more than two goals in a season and simply couldn't settle into a single role.

4. Ruud Gullit

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Ruud Gullit scored 56 times in 171 total games with Milan, but for all his flash, there was sometimes something missing.

In the final two seasons of his first stint in Milan, the Dutchman became increasingly marginalized in the team. His role was greatly reduced in the 1991-92 unbeaten year, and he was left out of the squad entirely for the Champions League final against Marseille the following season.

With competition rules only allowing teams to field three foreign players, Jean-Pierre Papin was preferred to him in such a crucial match.

Had he not faded from favor in those closing years, he would certainly be higher on this list. His unfortunate second stint with the club after a year at Sampdoria doesn't do him many favors either.  

Brilliantly gifted, his very best years were the two he spent at PSV. While excellent at Milan, his fall into disfavor has allowed several of his countrymen to surpass him on this list.

3. Frank Rijkaard

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Rijkaard (No. 8) nestles between Carlo Ancelotti and Van Basten.

One of the best holding midfielders ever to play the game, Rijkaard spent the first seven years of his career at Ajax before a dust-up with coach Johan Cruyff led to the player walking off the training field, vowing never to play under the man again.

What followed was something of a travel saga. He signed with Sporting in Portugal but missed the deadline to be considered eligible to play for the team. He was loaned to Real Zaragoza for a year and then signed by Milan, arriving a year later than the other members of the Dutch triumvirate.

In five years at Milan, Rijkaard never played fewer than 33 games overall and revolutionized the holding midfield role. Hard tackling and aggressive, he was the model for a generation of players after him that included Patrick Vieira and Gennaro Gattuso.

He was never a goalscorer but did manage 26—a decent number for his position over five years. He did have a knack for getting big ones—especially his goal against Benfica in the 1990 European Cup final.

After five decorated years in Milan, he returned to Amsterdam and played his part in Louis van Gaal's historic unbeaten season in 1994-95. That league form carried to Europe, and when Ajax faced Milan in the final, it was Rijkaard's assist for Patrick Kluivert's 85th-minute goal that was the difference.

2. Marco van Basten

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Van Basten's carrer is a classic example of what if.

The list of Marco van Basten's accomplishments with Milan is a long one indeed. He won four scudetti, three European Cups, three Ballons d'Or and one FIFA World Player of the Year award.

A complete forward who was as adept at poaching as he was at making incredibly acrobatic strikes and as good a passer as he was a finisher, Van Basten was capocannoniere twice and in 1989 was the top scorer in the whole of Europe.  

In all competitions, he scored 124 times in 201 games, a number good for seventh on the club's all-time list.

So why is a player of this caliber only second on a list like this? Because we could have seen so much more.

Van Basten struggled with ankle injuries early in his days at Milan, playing only 11 times in his first season in 1987-88. He shook that off to explode over the next five years, but his injured ankle reared its head again.

The 1993 Champions League final was the last time Van Basten ever took the field. For 86 minutes, a depleted shell of the man Milanisti had come to love ran the field, missing numerous chances and looking very much like a man playing under the influence of heavy painkillers—which, in fact, he was. He was 28 years old.

For two years, he attempted to rehabilitate but was forced to call time on his career. It was a cruel fate, depriving himself and the world of the peak years of a career that could have been mentioned in the same breath as the greatest of the great had it reached a more natural conclusion.

True legend though he was, the thoughts of what could have been hold him down on this list.

1. Clarence Seedorf

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Seedorf was going strong at Milan even after 10 years.

Clarence Seedorf is one of the most successful Champions League players in history. He remains the only man to have won the competition with three different teams—though Milan is the only place where he has won it twice.

Part of a tremendous midfield trio that included Gennaro Gattuso and Andrea Pirlo, Seedorf dovetailed well with the attacking midfielders in front of him, particularly Kaka.  

Though he never scored at the rate as some of the box-to-box midfielders of today like Arturo Vidal and Yaya Toure—he never scored more than 10 overall in any season—he was often the man who jump-started the men in front of him.

His assist numbers were never particularly large, but he made so many key passes that more often than not he had a hand in when Milan scored. He was also an excellent taker of set pieces, a skill that was often overshadowed by the utter mastery of Pirlo.

One of the greatest players in Milan's illustrious history, he is the team's most-capped non-Italian, having passed Nils Liedholm's record of 395 late in his career. He now holds the record at 432.

For his 10 years of sparkling service anchoring Carlo Ancelotti's midfield, Clarence Seedorf rightly deserves the first position on this list.