The deadline for submitting squad lists for the Champions League is fast approaching, and AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca has some tough decisions to make.
We did a deeper look into Milan’s draw after it was made, while the deadline for submitting the final squad list is tomorrow, with clubs having to send everything to UEFA by midnight on Tuesday. Calciomercato.com have provided a breakdown of Milan’s situation.
The two lists
As a reminder, the list is broken down into List A and List B. For the former, no team can have more than 25 players registered during the season. Of these, at least eight must have come through academies of clubs in the same country and four must have come through Milan’s academy.
To meet these requirements, the player must have spent three seasons in that specific league (first case) or team (second case) – even if not consecutive – between the ages of 15 and 21.
If a club has fewer than eight locally trained players in List A, the maximum number of players who can be included in this list is reduced accordingly (if they are one player short, List A slots are reduced by one etc.).
Each club will have the right to register an unlimited number of players on List B during the season and this particular list must be submitted by midnight on the day of the match in question.
A player can be registered on List B if he was born after 1 January 2003 and, from his 15th birthday, if he is eligible to play for the club for an uninterrupted period of two years or for a total of three years including a loan period of no more than one year.
With regard to goalkeepers, each club must include at least two on List A and at least three in total including List B. If a team cannot have at least two goalkeepers from List A due to injury or long-term illness, they may temporarily replace them at any time during the season. Long-term physical problems are defined as a prognosis of at least 30 days.
If the goalkeeper who is replaced on the list recovers earlier than expected, he must still remain off the list until the end of the 30 days. The return to the list of the goalkeeper who recovers from injury must be communicated to UEFA no later than 24 hours before the match in question.
Where Milan stand
The current prediction is that Milan’s list could be shorter than the 25 available places, because the slots dedicated to players trained in national youth systems are not filled.
Matteo Gabbia and Davide Calabria are the only ones who came through the Milan academy while Marco Sportiello, Filippo Terracciano and Alessandro Florenzi are part of the list of players who came through another Italian academy.
As for the 17 ‘free’ slots, Fonseca will be forced to make a cut and the number one suspect to remain outside the UEFA list is Luka Jovic, destined to make way for the latest arrival Tammy Abraham.
The only factor that could upset Milan’s plans would be the departure of Ismael Bennacer towards Saudi Arabia, where however the transfer market closes today (Monday 2 September) and therefore time is running out.
Already certain of exclusion are Divock Origi and Fodé Ballo-Touré, plus in all likelihood Alex Jimenez will also be left out as he does not meet the requirements to be included in List B despite being born in 2005 (he has not been playing for two years at the club).
Young players from Milan Futuro such as Francesco Camarda and Kevin Zeroli could be included in List B, as well as the goalkeeper Lorenzo Torriani to reach the quota in that position.
Goalkeepers: Maignan, Sportiello.
Defenders: Emerson Royal, Thiaw, Tomori, Pavlovic, Theo Hernandez, Calabria, Florenzi, Gabbia, Terracciano.
Midfielders: Bennacer, Loftus-Cheek, Fofana, Reijnders, Musah, Pulisic, Chukwueze.
Forwards: Leao, Abraham, Okafor, Morata.
we wont be in the champions league long enough to enjoy it. fronseca will make sure of this. this management have made sure of it and cardinale has confirmed this in multiple interviews.
no one in milan care bout trophies or competing for anything more then the bare minimum. 4th is as good as first and losing to inter is no different then losing to parma. whether we have maldini or furlani makes no difference. what does make a difference is being in the green financially. being able to be at a profit margin sell big buy low. being the most financially healthy club in italy.
the fans and the management have different priorities.
Ok. Thanks for letting us know.
Here is the proposal for most efficient exclusion: Fonseca.
this will be our downfall, not enough italians. the team has no passion, no spirit, no Grinta…..putting it plainly, noone gives a fxck, why ? because Milan is a team of foreigners.
we need a good AM, we had one in Maldini, but no would rather play RLC out of position.
we need a good DM, we spend 20m on another box to box foreigner, when we could have gone for Prati for the same price or even better focused on doing a deal for Ricci.
we wanted an upgrade/competition for Calabria, we got a piss pour foreigner for 15m, when we could have got Belanova, homegrown Milan good for quotas, for a similar price.
we could have got Buongiorno, but no we wanted another foreigner who has no serie A experience.
Atalanta, Napoli, Juventus have all strengthened and all have a solid Italian base, as do Inter.
We have just bought a load more foreigners which means to top it off we can’t register the maximum amount of players for the champions league.
great going guys.
no doubt people will italians are rubbish at the moment and say we don’t mind if we have a team of foreigners as long as we are winning………well we are not winning, nowhere near.
Sorry, which Italian players? We saw it at the Euro. Belanova never played in system 4, but as an offensive right winger. Ricci? Give some seriousness. In 2010, Inter won the treble with foreigners. In the final against Bayern, not a single Italian was in the first 11.
Inter stands for Internazionale.
Check your history, inter were created for foreigners, not Milan
Then why xenophobia? Who prevented Milan from buying Barela and Bastonia?
What xenophobia? So ignorant, so should I counter and say you’re racist to Italians?
No to both. What nko said is correct. He’s listing Italian alternatives and not only would they be the same price but they’re better quality players. Grinta, look it up, we have none.
And please, RLC at the 10 and Emerson at RB is a joke.
Put royal outside the list and you can take jovic. Incase of injury, you need 2centre forward
We have 2 CFs. Morata and Abraham.
List B will have Camada on it.
It has to be Jovic to miss out.
Ohh boy, you said it🙌
Please this my suggestion Fonseca should play this line up is important
M.maignan
E.royal, Gabbia, Pavlovic, Hernandez
Fofana, rejnder
Okafor, pulisic/Benercer,leao
Abraham
This line up will be perfect for Acmilan.
Let’s go with this line up let’s benercer start playing from attacking midfield this line 100% for Acmilan to win their match
Ya no…
We knew all these requirements for Italian trained players and yet we stiil actively pushed out Pobega, D Maldini, Colombo and Nasti in the last window.
Already knowing that Florenzi and Sportiello were on the long term injury list.
I don’t understand it.
I know none of those 4 are brilliant but at least some of them are worthy for squad depth. When you know the foreign players you are replacing them with have a max of 17 spots to register on.
We will be lucky to have 20 senior players actually available on List A.
Simic would also have been useful now his has his 2 years done.
I cant remember if Kalulu qualifies, he did start pretty young with Milan
Royal, Terraciano, RLC, Musah, Chucky
WHo spent 95m on these absolute donkeys? And thats in just over 1 year!!!
Not CL quality