The former Rossoneri boss will become the fourth Italian recipient of the award.
AC Milan great Arrigo Sacchi will receive UEFA President’s Award at Thursday’s Champions League draw.
The award recognises ‘outstanding achievements that transcend the sport’ and was last won by Milan defender Simon Kjaer and Denmark’s medical team for their response to Christian Eriksen’s cardiac arrest at Euro 2020.
“This award recognises professional excellence and furthermore, it honours the legacy left by exceptional individuals in the game of football,” UEFA president Aleksander Ceferin said.
“Very few people have reshaped the philosophy of the game in the way that Arrigo Sacchi has managed. So that the sport itself can be observed in two eras. Pre- and post-Sacchi.
“The endless tactical innovations he introduced are today the foundations of any footballing playbook, mirrored by generations of coaches who have followed.”
Sacchi is widely considered among the greatest managers of all time. His pressing style inspired a whole generation of coaches both in Italy and abroad during the last 1980s.
During his four-year spell in charge of Milan, Sacchi won the Serie A while claiming back-to-back European Cup titles.
Later he became Italy’s manager for the 1994 World Cup, which ended in a penalty heartbreak against Brazil in the tournament’s final.
Ceferin added: “Sacchi reinvented the ethos of teamwork, which transcended to pure harmony on the pitch.
“Perfect synchronisation and a winning mindset, irrespective of whether they were playing at home or away, felt almost supernatural back in the 1980s. That is precisely what divides excellence from greatness.”
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