Football
AC Milan need to restructure their club after a disappointing season, which have led the Rossoneri to make multiple changes. The team was set to appoint Italian director of football Fabio Paratici at the club, but the talks have stalled after ‘legal issues’ between the two sides per multiple reports.
AC Milan were looking for a new sporting director over the past weeks, and Paratici emerged to become the strongest candidate, beating out others such as former Lazio head man Igli Tare and Andrea Berta, who joined Arsenal. AC Milan CEO Giorgio Furlani personally held talks with Paratici, who was ready to make his comeback in Serie A, where hehad worked as sporting director at Sampdoria and at Juventus before moving to England where he worked at Tottenham. The Italian director is still serving a 30-month ban for the capital gains investigation, which will end on July 20, however, and he’s still an external consultant for Tottenham after his resignation in April 2023. And that hurdle seems likely to be too much to overcome.
AC Milan, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, have restarted talks for the new sport director and Atalanta’s Tony D’Amico and the Tare is now also a candidate again.
The 52-year-old Paratici has a long history in Italy where he was the sport director at Sampdoria and at Juventus before becoming the CEO of Football for the Bianconeri until the summer 2021, when he moved to Tottenham. Paratici worked for years together with current Inter president Giuseppe Marotta, creating one of the most successful cycles in the recent history of Italian soccer. At Sampdoria, the duo achieved a historic Champions League qualification, while at Juventus they both started a winning cycle with Antonio Conte as manager that lasted for a decade.
Together they signed players like Carlos Tevez, Arturo Vidal, Paul Pogba and Paulo Dybala, just to name a few before the biggest signing in the history of Italian soccer, when in the summer 2018 Paratici convinced club chairman Andrea Agnelli to sign Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid for around $90 million. That transfer, in particular, created a friction between the former CEO and the sporting director, which led the Marotta to resign few months later. Paratici became a much more central figure at the club as he was named CEO of Football, managing difficult financial situations such as the COVID-19 crisis and more.
At Tottenham, Daniel Levy wanted the Italian director to start a new chapter at the club and despite his initial refusal, Paratici convinced Antonio Conte to join the English side in November 2021. After Paratici stepped down due to the capital gains scandal in April 2023, he remained as an external consultant as he couldn’t be part of negotiations with players.
AC Milan are currently in ninth place in the Serie A standings and are unlikely to play Champions League soccer next season. Despite the Rossoneri appointment of Sergio Conceicao in December to replace Paulo Fonseca, it’s more than likely they will decided to take another director and appoint yet another new manager after the season. The new sport director will be mainly to bring AC Milan back to success, and to avoid the mistakes and the confusion that have surrounded the club since club icon Paolo Maldini left his role in the summer 2023.
Read More Francesco Porzio