AC Milan's triumph in the FIFA Club World Cup produced a riot of excited headlines in the Italian press on Monday but left pundits scratching their heads over the club's poor form in Serie A.
All Italian dailies put Milan's 4-2 victory over Boca Juniors of Argentina on their front pages, while proudly yelling out that, with 18 international trophies to its credit, the club now has more than any other team in the world.
Dancing On The World, was Corriere della Sera's headline over a photo of the FIFA trophy held high amid a shower of red and black confetti.
The daily predicted that the result would spark more debate in Italy about the real value of winning the FIFA Club World Cup and also discussions about whether it was more important to win at home or abroad.
Halfway through the season, Milan is 11th in the Serie A table and has won only four games.
For Corriere, the Club World Cup was all about image and in this area Milan left its cross-town rival Inter standing, despite the fact that Inter won the Italian championship last year and is leading the Serie A race this year too.
''Winning at Yokohama means ending up on TV screens the world over and receiving the congratulations of (FIFA President Sepp) Blatter and (UEFA President Michele) Platini in the midst of an explosion of red and black confetti. Playing in Cagliari (Inter's weekend fixture) is not exactly the same thing''.
Milan and Inter meet next Sunday night in a high-tension Serie A derby which will give commentators more fuel for the debate over which is the better team at the moment.
Milan - Another Planet, wrote Gazzetta dello Sport in its headline, topping its front page with images of every international trophy Milan has won, including the latest.
''Let no one dare denigrate the importance of this trophy. You can sniff at the first part of the tournament, but the final against Boca was for real, worthy of the classic clashes between the two continents''.
Arrigio Sacchi, a former Milan and Italy coach, said Milan had won ''deservedly'' but raised the question of why Milan was conquering the world, but not its national championship.
''In order to remove all shadow from the value of its victories, it should be more competitive in the domestic championship. The club's colours demand this, its history and its present''.
However, Sacchi heartily thanked Milan for having ''put us once again at the centre of the world's attention'' just 17 months after Italy won the World Cup in Germany.
Corriere dello Sport, whose headline read: Milan The Triumph, pondered the reasons for Milan's continuing success on the world stage and concluded that it was an insatiable ''hunger'' at all levels of the club.
While Milan was reveling in glory in Japan this weekend, Inter was busy beating Caglieri 2-0 to notch up its 16th win of the season and extend its lead at the top of Serie A to seven points.
