The bomb has dropped at Casa Milan: both Paolo Maldini and Frederic Massara are leaving Milan. Get Italian Football News puts all the pieces together and explains what exactly led to both directors getting fired by the Rossoneri.
On the fith of June, Paolo Maldini met with the Milan owner Gerry Cardinale in a hotel in the city. According to Sky Italia, there were frictions between Maldini and Cardinale when they discussed the club’s future, and a potential exit in the future was possible. At this point, things did not seem so bad, even though there was still nothing being stated about Maldini staying after his current deal in 2024 runs out.
However, the situation was much more serious than anyone imagined. While the Milanese evening was in full swing, confirmations came in of not only Maldini, but also Massara leaving the club. Cardinale and the directors were so far apart in their ideas on how to continue with the club, that the owner decided to sack the duo.
Ungrateful
Whether the demands of the directors for next season were too high or not, it does not seem like a very grateful decision from Cardinale. Maldini returned to the club in 2018 and took the place of head of the technical area after Leonardo resigned in 2019. Massara joined as well and together they built the team that brought home the Scudetto last season, eleven years after the last time the Rossoneri managed to win it. Of course, Maldini had some misses on the transfer market. Charles de Ketelaere being the most recent example, but the Italian legend constructed a title winning squad with limited funds.
It is vital to note that Maldini and Massara have never been too popular with the marketing side of the club. The commercial side of Milan wanted to sign Ralf Rangnick as the new head coach to replace Stefano Pioli back in 2020 and almost signed the current Austria coach, but former director Zvonimir Boban made it public beforehand, leading to him being sacked. Pioli remained as the Milan coach and we all know how it played out.
Pioli and European giants
Later that evening on the fifth of June, La Repubblica revealed more information behind the sackings. Cardinale avoided being present at Milanello, the training ground, and at the farewell Zlatan Ibrahimović the day before. He spoke with Maldini about the director’s future for 35 minutes, with the biggest clashes taking place on the front of Pioli’s position and the available budget.
Maldini and Massara asked for a budget higher than €50 million to be able to compete with European giants. Cardinale obviously did not agree with their vision and decided to let them go. This has made some big names in the Rossoneri squad unhappy. Theo Hernández, Mike Maignan and Rafael Leão are upset with the decision.
Milan full-back Théo Hernandez is said to be rather unhappy about the club’s decision to sack Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara and he could now consider his future at the Rossoneri.
The Portugese attacker renewed his contract at the club last week, but he thinks if Maldini was to leave, he wouldn’t have put pen to paper. He publically showedcased his feelings with the tweet below. Both Hernández and Maignan are considering their future at the club.
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— Rafael Leão (@RafaeLeao7) June 5, 2023
Milan are set to look for an internal solutions to the vacant positions. Geoffrey Moncada, head of scouting, could be up for promotion. The same can be said about Giorgio Furlani, club managing director. Whoever Milan decide to appoint, what remains certain is that the last word about this whole saga hasn’t been written yet.
Jurre van Wanrooij | GIFN