What springs to mind when you think of an AC Milan centre-forward? People of a certain age will immediately be reminded of Marco van Basten, an intelligent and technically gifted striker. The Dutchman was far from the only world class centre-forward to wear the red and black. In the fifties there was the Swede Gunner Nordahl, Milan's all-time goalscorer, and a decade later the Brasilian José Altafini stalked the San Siro. After Van Basten greats like Shevchenko, Weah and Inzaghi played for Milan. These days Ibrahimovic is spending his dotage there.
What few people will probably come up with when conjuring up a mental image of a Milan forward, is a classic British target-man. The kind that would long ago have lost his front teeth in some ill-fated areal duel. Yet that is exactly what AC Milan set out to take the Serie A by storm with back in 1981, after spending a year in the Serie B due to a betting scandal.
Joe Jordan, because that's who we're talking about, wasn't a bad striker by any means. He had risen to fame as part of the great Leeds side of the 1970's coached by Don Revie . With that hard-as-nails 'Dirty Leeds' Jordan had won the First Division in 1974. The following season he and his teammates reached the final of the European Cup. With Scotland Jordan would make it to three World Cups, finding the net in each of them.
| September 1981: Joe Jordan celebrates victory with Scotland |
So for a certain type of football, Jordan was a perfectly fine player. We're not necessarily talking about some clichéd form of kick and rush, but something a little bit in that direction. The kind of football where the game ebbs and flows, teams attack in numbers and there's plenty of crosses coming from the flanks. In teams that played like that, Jordan could use his determination and his strength in the air to lay off balls to teammates, and score a few goals himself as well.
Problem was, the football being played in the Serie A at the time was nothing like that. In the early 1980's Italian football was living through the waning days of catenaccio. In the pré-Arrigo Sacchi Serie A, a hyper-conservative attitude still prevailed. It was all about defending in numbers and hitting your opponent on the break. The kind of football where you needed pacey forwards or forwards with the skill to unpick tight defenses.
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| October 1981: Joe Jordan in action against Juventus |
Jordan failed to thrive in the red and black. Whereas he had notched up fifteen goals during his last season in England, playing for Manchester United, he only scored a meager two goals in Italy. The failed gamble with a toothless center forward wasn't without consequences for Milan either, as they found themselves dropping straight back down to the Serie B. This time there wasn't even the excuse of having been relegated by the authorities.
To his credit, Jordan stayed loyal to Milan and decided to play in the Serie B with them. That was in spite of the fact that he had played in the Spain World Cup during that summer, so probably could have found a first division club to go to. Milan won the Serie B that season, with their toothless Scottish striker contributing a respectable ten goals. Club and player parted way in the summer of 1983, but Jordan got a second shot at cracking the Serie A nevertheless, after he got signed by Hellas Verona. Sadly things didn't go any better. Jordan ended up losing his spot in the starting lineup and only ever scored one Serie A goal for Verona.
In the summer of 1984 Joe Jordan's Italian adventure came to an end and he returned to England to play out the remaining years of his career. Oh, and those front-teeth? He had lost them during a game with the Leeds reserve team, when he took a boot to the face in a goal area scrimmage.