Now it’s official: Paulo Fonseca he is the new coach of Milan. As anticipated, the new technician was announced by Zlatan Ibrahimovic during a question and answer session with Milan TV: “I want to say thanks to Pioli for what he did in Milan, on behalf of the club and on my part personally. The new coach will be Paulo Fonseca. We studied well, we put the criteria of what we look for and what we want.”
And again: “We chose him to bring his identity to the players we have, for how we want the team to play, with a dominant and attacking game; with all due respect to Pioli, we wanted to bring something new to the players. We studied how he coaches, how he plays, how he prepares matches. We want to bring something new to San Siro too: after 5 years we needed something new. We are very confident and we believe in it.”
Below is the official press release: “AC Milan announces that it has entrusted the technical management of the men’s first team to Paulo Fonseca.
Born in Nampula (Mozambique) on 5 March 1973, Paulo Fonseca began his coaching career in 2005, starting from the youth team of Estrela Amadora and then continuing, among the professionals, in the Portuguese minor leagues. In 2012 he made his debut in the top league with Paços de Ferreira, a club with which he reached the Champions League play-offs. In 2013 he moved to Porto, with which he won the Portuguese Super Cup, his first trophy as a coach. After a spell at Braga, with which he won the Portuguese Cup, he coached Shakhtar Donetsk for three seasons, with which he won seven trophies and collected 103 victories in 139 matches. In 2019 he made his debut in the Italian championship with AS Roma, a team with which he reached the semi-final of the Europa League in 2021. Coach of LOSC Lille since the summer of 2022, Fonseca ends his adventure in France after two seasons in which he contributed to bringing the club to as many European qualifiers.
The Portuguese coach now joins Milan on a three-year contract.
The Club extends a warm welcome to Paulo and his collaborators.”
