Abate confirms exit amid expiring deal: “This was my last match as Milan coach”

By Oliver Fisher -

Ignazio Abate has announced that he is leaving AC Milan at the end of the season when his contract expires, after the Primavera were eliminated from the play-offs.

It has been another memorable season for the Primavera as they reached the UEFA Youth League final for the first time in their history, which in turn made it back-to-back appearances in the final four.

Unfortunately they had their season ended on Saturday evening as they drew 1-1 with Lazio in their play-off, which was not enough to secure progress to the next round.

The regulations state that if a quarter-final is a draw after 90 minutes, the team with the higher placing in the regular season goes through, which meant that the Diavolo had to beat Lazio inside 90 minutes.

We spoke in a recent feature about the fact that Abate’s future at the club was far from certain, given the fact his contract is about to run out and he seems ready for a job at a senior side.

At the end of the game, Abate officially announced that he is leaving the Rossoneri during an interview with Sportitalia.

“This was my last match as Milan coach, I feel ready for professional football,” he said (via MilanNews).

Tags AC Milan Ignazio Abate

21 Comments

    1. i liked him as a player even when half of milanistas was treating him as trash and i hope so too that he will one day return in some capacity. Let him coach a couple of clubs and see how he fares.

        1. I dont think i had a playstation at that point of time as the last one i had was probably a playstaion 2 (pc man here) but i assume he was a pretty fast rb 🙂

    1. abate leaving has nothing to do about letting legends leave because it seems he wants to take a leap in regard of coaching and that wont happen currently staying in milan coaching primaveras. There has been so many players over the years who turned coaches who has been in ac milans coaching ranks that moved on and onwards that is bound to happen fairly regularly.

    2. They are not getting rid of him. He has to get some experience with some senior weaker team. If milan senior side brings him in now and it doesn’t work out, we’ll mostlikely burn his career. Patience is key.

  1. That makes the Bonera to U23 side make sense then…..unless he left because Bonera was chosen ahead of him. I’d say this all works out for the better, hoping Abate can showcase his chops in a mid or lower table team in Serie A

    1. I think it has less to do with the direction and more to do with him wanting to take the next steps for his coaching career. He’s not going to be the first team coach next season, and being an U23 coach forever is obviously not a plan, so he has to make some experience with some senior teams and who knows, maybe one day if he becomes a great coach, he’ll become our first team coach.

  2. Good luck to you abate. True milanista through and through. Hope to see him as our senior team coach one day. I think he will do great in the future. Some experience on weaker teams will prep him just fine for our senior side.

  3. The management probably want a foreign manager.
    They bought a Italian club but don’t like Italians.
    Thats Why they hire mediocre Fonseca instead of good Italian manager.
    That’s why they never buy good Italian Players.
    That’s why Milan don’t have a player in the national team.
    They dont know anything about Milan tradition.
    They should buy a small team and make their profit there instead of ruining this great team.

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