Pioli: Milan officially announces his dismissal at the end of the season

Journalist

May 23 – 7.14am – MILAN

On 22 May 2022, Milan and Stefano Pioli celebrated the Rossoneri’s last scudetto: an engaging and in some ways unexpected joy. On May 22, 2024, yesterday, Stefano Pioli officially learned that he was no longer the Milan coach: this time no surprise, the end of the story was now written. The very last chapter against Salernitana.

the club’s gratitude

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The two events are somehow connected: Pioli is the coach who brought Milan back to the top of the championship table and among the big four in Europe. Arriving in October 2019, he found a confused group without an identity, and then made it into a winning and recognizable team: fame also returned at an international level. The Champions semi-final is in May 2023, one year ago. The double defeat against Inter, the number of derbies lost this season has increased and the now widespread feeling of having reached the end of the story. Milan, in these hours, will communicate it like this, after having told the coach: not with a terse note, but with words that will tell of the esteem and gratitude for the coach and the person. The club wants San Siro to recognize the same affection for it and so it will be: the “Pioli is on fire”, which was lit up after the Scudetto triumph and then extinguished in a period of crisis, will be able to resonate once again. Pioli leaves Milan second, having qualified for the Champions League for the fourth consecutive time, and for the Final Four of the Italian Super Cup. All in all positive results, which however were not enough to avoid criticism (in addition to the derbies, also a discontinuity in performance which left the way clear for Inter already in April) and above all days, weeks, months of transfer rumors and rumors about his successor. “When I arrived, I found Milan in a certain situation. When I leave, if I leave, it will be in another situation”, Pioli had claimed in recent days. And again: “Am I a lightning rod? This is also among the duties of the coach.” The CEO Furlani had publicly protected him after the match against Juve, but the work to start the new course had already begun.

exemption or agreement?

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The story that began almost five years ago will in all respects end on Saturday evening. When the official announcement has already arrived. A way to avoid embarrassment and give the manager the runway that – for the club – he truly deserves: for this reason he will try to give him a special last night at San Siro. The rest, from Monday: the technical terms of the divorce, the accounts on the money that Pioli will receive, a possible agreement on severance pay. Pioli has a contract expiring in 2025 at four and a half million net per season. A figure that for Milan would cost just under ten million, and which the club obviously aims to discount. Pioli, at the same time, will have to evaluate what alternative options could be for the future. The actual negotiations will begin in the next few days.

the heir

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The negotiating table will also involve the Rossoneri management in defining the arrival of the successor. All the clues, one more every day, lead to Paulo Fonseca, who has just concluded the season and contract with Lille. The French would offer him a renewal, just as Marseille would like to keep him in Ligue 1: the lure of Milan is stronger than anything. The name doesn’t heat up the square but the precedent can encourage: Pioli was welcomed with the #Pioliout, Fonseca risks being preceded by the #Nonseca. Pioli won a championship, Fonseca will have to do the same.