AC Milan fans are slowly getting to know Gerry Cardinale, the man who became the owner of the club on an official basis just over a year ago.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) recalls, Cardinale took over Milan and he did something which is not that common in Italian football: he kept quite a low profile, and largely kept the board from the previous ownership Elliott Management.
However, in recent weeks his presence has been increasingly visible. Cardinale will be at San Siro both for the derby on 16 September and for the Champions League match against Newcastle on the 19th, work contingencies permitting.
That would mean that he has been at all five games played so far this season given he was present for the matches against Bologna and Roma too, as well as the first home game against Torino.
On 21 September at te Yankee Stadium in New York there will be ‘AC Milan Night’. The Yankees, during the match against the Toronto Blue Jays, will distribute a special edition of their cap – simply, the most famous in the world – with the Milan crest on the side.
It was a way of reiterating the partnership between Milan and the world’s most historic baseball franchise, to which Cardinale has been personally linked for years.
The change of pace is clear. Cardinale is increasingly passionate about Milan and the feeling is that what was a business is becoming a passion. Also for this reason, he is ambitious: he wants to win the derby and, naturally, the Scudetto.
However, his plan is to win in an ‘intelligent way’, because the plan is to win consistently over a period of years rather than gambling the future for immediate success.
In the summer, Cardinale revolutionised the internal organisation by sacking Paolo Maldini and entrusting the transfer market to a working group with Giorgio Furlani and Geoffrey Moncada at the forefront, plus Antonio D’Ottavio as sporting director.
Milan introduced the skills of algorithm wizard Billy Beane, did player trading selling Sandro Tonali for €70m and they invested over €130m (bonuses included) on 10 players.
Cardinale was in constant contact with Furlani and he followed market events on a daily basis, and it is no coincidence that he did not miss a live match. This Milan feels like his.
