The upcoming game between Inter and AC Milan on Saturday evening has been dubbed the ‘€1billion derby’ given how much the two squads are valued.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) recalls that Banco BPM issued bonds for €500m and the EU allocated €500m for violence against women in the last 24 hours, while the value of the Milan squad is similar.
The sum of values of the Rossoneri players is €550.2m as per the paper, which makes it clear the level reached. Stefano Pioli looks at the team he has and must be pleased that the depth has increased.
The total value of Milan’s squad is higher than that of Inter’s, not necessarily due to superiority on the pitch – last season said the opposite – but rather due to their philosophy of investing in young players whose value increases rather than the opposite.
However, this does not change the meaning: Milan have built a strong team in just a few years (according to Transfermarkt Milan are 14th-placed in the world in terms of squad value), above all a team with some very strong players.
The Leao-Maignan-Theo Hernandez trio is world class and few teams in Italy have three players who are elite in their role. The summer of 2023 served to give depth to the squad like on the right wing, with Junior Messias and Alexis Saelemaekers out, then Christian Pulisic and Samuel Chukwueze in.
In midfielder Sandro Tonali, Tiemoue Bakayoko and Aster Vranckx left, but Tijjani Reijnders, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Yunus Musah arrived for fees of around €20m.
The new signings have raised the costs on the accounts for the year – which is one year of amortisation (transfer fee divided by contract length) plus gross salaries – but in turn it has also increased the value of the squad.
Milan have chosen to focus heavily on players expiring in 2024, according to a precise strategy that originates from RedBird Capital and passes through Giorgio Furlani and Geoffrey Moncada.
For example, Chukwueze – if he had had a contract until 2025 or 2026 – would not have been available for €20m. The same goes for Pulisic and Loftus-Cheek. All three would have a higher valuation on the market today.
The same goes for Reijnders, who was watched by the scouting department and drew total approval from them, and they very much believe that he can become a top-level midfielder.
The symbolic operation for RedBird’s Milan, however, is a bit different. Gerry Cardinale fired Paolo Maldini and put the transfer market in the hands of Furlani and Moncada for various reasons – a long and complex discussion – but the transfer market is one of them.
Maldini and Massara’s Milan had almost finalised the signing of Marko Arnautovic and were negotiating over Domenico Berardi and Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. These are not the young players that the American ownership prefer.
The symbol might well be Malick Thiaw. Identified by Moncada and his scouting group, signed by Maldini and Massara, launched by Pioli after months of adaptation. He cost €8.5m to sign from Schalke, and now he is worth €25m.
Then there is Pierre Kalulu who cost very little but has become an €18m player, then Theo Hernandez is now a player worth €60-65m. Maignan, who cost €14m, is valued at €70m. Rafael Leao deserves his own discussion, given he is the €100m man.
RLC is not young so the new management still mix older player in mercato like previous management did. That’s the right way.
Plus most of the players bought by new management were exactly what was targeted by the old management.
RLC is a suprise. I thought he would be a bad player. Glad i was wrong
Surprise indeed. Remember few months ago? Maldini received a lot of hate on this site for targetting RLC and the critics were overjoyed when Maldini was sacked because that means RLC won’t come. 🤣
“.. the EU allocated €500m for violence against women in the last 24 hours, while the value of the Milan squad is similar.”
This has to be the weirdest segways in the history of segways. Wtf 😭😭😭
Nope. Par for the course for an American owned club that’s getting articles written and wants to up their ESG score.
Hmmmm interesting 🤔🤔
Still though. Was so odd. Read some head scratchers today or maybe I haveihad my coffee lol 😂