The captain’s armband has been far from sacred at AC Milan in recent years and as highlighted by Gazzetta dello Sport, there could be further proof of this in the summer. From Riccardo Montolivo to Alessio Romagnoli and now potentially Davide Calabria.
As pointed out by the pink newspaper, from 1982 to 2013, Milan had just three (!) captains: Franco Baresi, Paolo Maldini and Massimo Ambrosini. Three players who were true pillars of their respective sides and never struggled to get a starting spot, unless for injuries.
The latest tradition is completely the opposite, though, as there have been several captains since Ambrosini decided to hang up his boots. From 2013 to 2017, the armband belonged to Riccardo Montolivo and his spell at the club was tainted by injuries as well as poor performances.
Or rather, after he broke his leg ahead of the World Cup in 2014, he never managed to return to his peak. At the end of his tenure at the club, he was left completely out of the squad by Gennaro Gattuso and this is something he has reflected on recently.
Then, after Montolivo, the captain’s armband was handed to Leonardo Bonucci who had only just joined from Juventus – and clearly did so out of spite looking back. He only played one season with the club before re-joining the Bianconeri, so giving him the armband was a shocking decision in retrospect.
Finally, Milan managed to get some consistency as Alessio Romagnoli took over the armband. He made 247 appearances in total for the club and when he received the armband, he had been there for three years.
Following the trend, however, his last season was ruined by injuries and Pierre Kalulu leapfrogging him in the pecking order. While he was a great professional and did get to lift the Scudetto in the end, deservedly so, he left on a free transfer.
Fast forward to today, Davide Calabria is still the captain of the team but has only made a few appearances this season, due to injuries and Emerson Royal being the preferred choice. With his contract expiring in 2025, he’s expected to leave for free just like Romagnoli, once again continuing the trend.
Seeing as Fonseca has been very liberal with the captain’s armband, the trend might not change any time soon. It would probably take someone like Sandro Tonali to return for the armband to be fixed again.
The last two has done pretty well for us but in Romagnolis case he was actually earning 6.3 mil a year when his contract ended. Add to that there has been several articles with the Lazio owner professing that he had been in contacts with Romagnoli each time we had played against them in rome and that it had been in the making for some time that he would eventually join them. Calabria is on a fairly low wage and could easily be renewed. Montolivo was not even a shade of his former Fiorentina self and should have left on his own earlier but decided to ruin his career with us and then retire when his contract ended.
The only one of those 3 that in my view has actually been somewhat mistreated is Calabria.
Calabria has been given the arm band as he comes from the academy and not on the basis of his leadership ability.
How many seasons have we played with only one (possibly two) Italian(s) in the side…….? However, Gabbia is of a different cut and can still greatly improve. He gets my vote.
I don’t think Gabbia is a leader. But I completely agree with your take on Calabria.
There are only 2 captain material in this team atm. Mike and morata. One of those actually does do captaining for his national team.
I’d add tiji as a silent runner for it.
We need someone who’s going to be there in hard times. So for me it’s Gabbia for his calmness, rationality, consistency and being a homegrown milanista. Character wise I rate him there with Ambro.
Tomori would have been my first choice, then Mike, but, with so much inconsistencies in his game, I’ll pick Mike. Calabria never really had any command of the team, or his own game. Theo is nowhere near captain material. A lot of times, he gets carded not because of the foul he committed, but, because of the way he walks away, even when the ref calls him. Sometimes, I fear he might hit a ref. We cannot have a captain who misses so many games because of cards, or who gets dropped every now and then by the coach, due to errors on the pitch.
If royal became starter and captain calabria bench player. Then royal deserve to be a captain this trophyless cardinale milan, because he bench the current captain.
Yes, your rationale is incredibly sound. How have you not managed to coach a global level football team yet. The sky is the limit for that kind of profesional thinking.
Pretty sure the fella was being sarcastic, otherwise I would be scared though 😀
At least Romagnoli was somewhat captain material but the others… OMG… Montolivo started the downfall.