AC Milan: A Giant Trying to Wake Up, Will it Succeed?

It took more than a decade for European soccer to see one of its greatest club exponents, Italy's AC Milan, crowned in Serie A. Without a doubt, it is news for the near future. The last time the seven-time European champion had won a scudetto, Silvio Berlusconi was president of the club, in 2011.

The former owner of Mediaset was evicted, just that year, from the presidency of the Council of Ministers. There began a deep crisis due to a risk premium of 574 points, which mercilessly affected Italy and also a club that was a reference in Europe and that, without knowing it, began one of its worst stages with 11 years without winning titles, except for the 2016 Italian Super Cup against Juventus.

Many things have changed since then and Milan is now owned by an American investment fund, which is far from the power of the sheikhs who have raised clubs like PSG and Manchester City, but who have at least returned glory to the Rossoneri fans with his scudetto 19 and participation in the Champions League for the second year in a row.

Transfers with Europe in mind

In recent years, Milan has opted for a revolution in its ranks, placing trust in a club legend, Paolo Maldini, as manager and little by little the results began to arrive with the incorporation of names such as Franck Kessie, Hakan Calhanoglu, Simon Kjaer , Fikayo Tomori, Brahim Díaz, Theo Hernández, Rafael Leao, Olivier Giroud and the return of Zlatan Ibrahimovic at the end of his career. Six years have passed since this and many of these names will not continue in the club, so to analyze what is to come, it is necessary to review the options of the club and the market.

Winning the scudetto brings the Rossoneri 80 million euros in prize money and television rights for competitions derived from the title. But, in addition, they have applied a policy of reduced salaries – the squad costs about 100 million euros a year, the lowest among the four big Italians – which has been discussed prior to contract with the players. These have accepted and responded: Harmony.

In the young material, the native midfielder Sandro Tonali stands out, called to mark an era in the entity, as well as in "La Nazionale" , and also the Portuguese striker Rafael Leao, who was the player with the most progress in 21-22 with 14 goals and more than 10 assists.

To date, the club is very close to securing three signings: those of the Dutch defender Sven Botman -to strengthen a line that ended with just two central defenders available such as Tomori and Kalulu-; Portuguese midfielder Renato Sanches (a wish of the club's management for several years); and striker Divock Origi , who sees few minutes at Liverpool. As can be seen, reinforcements for each sector of the field.

But with luck, the strengthening plan would not culminate there as the Lombards do not lose hope with two important arrivals, according to CalcioMercato.it. The first of them would be the Algerian winger Riyad Mahrez of Manchester City, who would enhance Leao's attacking work on the wings. While the other would be Marco Asensio, a Real Madrid striker who would go to his last season as a merengues player and who has expressed some dissatisfaction with his role in the team.

In this sense, the Rossoneri board plans to offer Asensio a salary of between €5 and €6 million net per course. To a lesser extent, the Catalan Gerard Deulofeu (Udinese), who already played for Milan in 2017, and the Italian Domenico Berardi (Sassuolo) are also possibilities.

Stadium project

Milan together with its city rival, Inter, presented their plans for the new San Siro stadium, which break with the initial approach of building from scratch and now project more towards a remodeling.

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The document was created by both clubs and presented to the Milan City Council, with two different projects to consider. They were designed by the architecture groups Populous Manica and Sportium, and the same in essence seeks to reuse the existing stadium.

The main novelty is based on taking advantage of part of the space of the current Giuseppe Meazza stadium to give it a more commercial and sporting touch that generates profitability 365 days a year, including some 106 thousand square meters of green space, which would double the current 56 thousand square meters. of green space on the current site.

It will be a center dedicated to commercial, sports, cultural and leisure activities, both outdoors and indoors, including a running track, a bike path, a gym, a skateboard park, a five-sided court and a sports museum. The aforementioned services would be free of charge.

Both teams, which in parallel are also trying to recover European glory, have in this stadium project another important asset for their economic consolidation. The concept offers an innovative space dedicated to the next generation, avant-garde for its low environmental impact and creating a new meeting place for social and recreational activities.

The project represents more than one billion euros of private investment, which in turn generates thousands of new jobs and will serve as a cornerstone for the future development of the city.