GdS: ‘We can have others’ – Fonseca, Leao and the idea rotating the armband

Photo by Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

AC Milan head coach Paulo Fonseca surprised some when he gave the captain’s armband to Rafael Leao for the game against Lecce on Friday night, but it seems to have had the desired effect.

La Gazzetta dello Sport recall the images that showed Leao complaining about being brought off in the derby against Inter moments before turning to celebrate Matteo Gabbia’s header, and the result of that is that Fonseca handed the armband to the winger.

The piece states that it is ‘a bit like a teacher who, if they have to be absent, entrusts the task of class leader to the most agitated, to cage them in with a task of responsibility’.

With Leao it worked: he played a good game versus Lecce, he made runs backwards that he usually avoids, he defended Davide Bartesaghi after his red card and he thought about the team.

“Over time I will explain why different players can wear the captain’s armband. Today it’s Rafa’s turn, but we can have others,” Fonseca said before the game.

Many fans will remember Franco Baresi and Paolo Maldini being captain and deem Leao to be unworthy, but just as the game has become fluid – with the abolition of set roles replaced by functions – the armband has taken on different meanings. For example, Inter gave it to Icardi to convince him to renew.

Fonseca had been hatching the idea of ​​a rotating armband for some time, to be passed from arm to arm, depending on the needs, like a shared benefit.

The truth is that, in reality, nothing has changed. It is not a piece of cloth that establishes the leader of the pack, but rather the heart and the standards set.

Tags AC Milan Rafael Leao

1 Comment

  1. If you start rotating captains & giving it to somebody with a personality of Leao, who does not ever deserve wearing one — club might start rotating coaches.

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