MILANELLO – The adventure at Milan officially begins Paulo Fonseca. The Portuguese coach, former Roma and Lille, was announced by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, operation partner of RedBird, in a conference in Milanello in front of an audience of over 70 journalists. For Fonseca a two-year contract with an option for a third at 3.5 million euros per season. Formerly Roma, led from 2019 to 2021, the 51-year-old Portuguese led Lille to 4th place in Ligue 1 (valid for the Champions League preliminaries) and to the Conference League quarter-finals.
The new coach
“I thank Stefano Pioli for everything he has done. And he made Milan history with the 19th scudetto. The new coach will be Paulo Fonseca. We studied well, he responds to what we want: a dominant and offensive game. After 5 years we wanted to give something new to the players. We studied how he coaches. We want to bring something new to San Siro too and Fonseca is the right coach. We believe in it a lot. With him there will be another face compared to the past: Pioli is bald, Fonseca has hair. However, they are both elegant coaches. Why Fonseca and not Lopetegui? There were also other names on the table, we discussed and in the end we preferred Fonseca between the two. Every day we compare ourselves with the new coach. The strategy is to improve the team, its collective. And we have a very important U23 project. We want to connect the first team and the U23 and Paulo Fonseca will be very important in this too. What convinced me about the new coach is his ambition. After last season’s 2nd place, the next step is to strengthen the team to be competitive for the objectives we have in Italy and Europe. I always say ‘Milan don’t win, Milan makes history’. Whoever enters here must have this ambition. We have chosen a manager. We have never discussed Conte. He didn’t have the characteristics we were looking for.”
The market
“With Gerry Cardinale,” continues Ibra, “we speak the same language and share the same ambitions. We don’t want to create a ‘muscular’ market but an intelligent, long-term one. Maignan, Theo and Leao remain. They are players with a contract with us and they are happy. If they weren’t, then it would become a problem. They are happy to be here. They have already made Milan’s history and want to continue making it. Thanks to RedBird we have the opportunity to bring in strong players and we don’t necessarily have to give up on them. The team that won the scudetto was not as favored and competitive as today’s. The market is every day, we do scouting and we want to improve the team. Staying at the top is harder than getting there. Zirkzee? He plays well, he comes from the Dutch school like me. Can he be another Ibra? I don’t want to compare myself to him. I like it, of course.”
