The sporting director role had been left vacant after Ricky Massara’s departure, but AC Milan have filled it with an internal promotion.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes that Antonio D’Ottavio is the new sporting director of Milan. However, he replaces Massara in title and not in role, because he will not have the same powers.
Instead, Milan have already made it clear how the new management will operate: “Responsibilities will be assigned to an integrated working group that will work in close contact with the coach, reporting directly to ‘managing director’.”
That is how the press release was worded at the time of Paolo Maldini’s departure and D’Ottavio will operate precisely in this way, because he will be part of the team that has taken over the mercato business.
D’Ottavio is not a ‘reinforcement’ from outside the club – as could happen for Enzo Vergine who is the man Milan want to poach from Roma to be the youth sector manager – but rather he has worked at Milan for years. Instead, D’Ottavio is in charge of youth sector scouting at Milan and has been for some time.
Born in 1982 with a degree in management engineering from the Milan Polytechnic, D’Ottavio arrived at Milan in 2017, after having worked with Tirno, Sunderland and Inter as a scout.
Massimiliano Mirabelli brought him to Milan having known him for years. Now, he will not conduct negotiations independently but will participate together with the other managers in market strategies.
His voice will be one of many within the ‘committee’ that manages the Milan transfer campaign. Every deal will pass through CEO Giorgio Furlani, while Geoffrey Moncada will also have a big say.
