Marco Van Basten made his debut for Ajax in the 1982 Dutch League Championship by coming in as a sub for Johan Cruyff and scoring a goal. Two years later he was a starter for the Amsterdam club and scored 28 goals in 26 games. In that same season he made his debut for the Dutch National team. The following season crowned him as the greatest European attacker, scoring 37 goals in 26 games and winning the "Golden Boot".

After an entire winter of negotiations, Berlusconi managed to wrest Van Basten from the clutches of Real Madrid and Barcelona. Van Basten left Holland having scored 127 goals in 129 games, and won 3 league titles and 1 Cup Winners Cup. He made his debut at San Siro in 1987, but in his first year he only made a few appearances for the red-and-black due to an injury that kept him from playing most of the season.

In the following season Van Basten imposed himself as the leader of the team because of his numerous goals, assists and wonderful play. His contributions to the third and fourth Champions Cups won by Milan were fundamental. He won France Football's "Golden Ball" award three times and became champion of Europe with the Dutch National team in 1988. In the triumphant 1991/92 season with Milan he won the goal-scoring title with 25 goals.

Dribbling, ball skill, power, and precision are the qualities which have made him enter by force into the history of soccer, not only at the club level but at the international level as well. At the end of the 1992/93 season a prolonged injury kept him away from the fields of play. Because of this injury, he left soccer for good two years later.