Olivier Giroud and Edin Dzeko will face off as opponents tomorrow night in the Coppa Italia semi-final second leg, but they could have done the same on opposite sides.
La Gazzetta dello Sport provides a background on how Dzeko could have joined Milan in the summer of 2009. He was 23 years old and had scored 26 goals in the Bundesliga, so Adriano Galliani put a Ronaldinho shirt in his suitcase and headed to Sarajevo to convince him to join Gattuso, Nesta, Inzaghi, Seedorf, Thiago Silva and Pato.
The Bosnian was more than happy to join Milan, but a sudden step back from Wolfsburg meant the deal collapsed, and Galliani reflected on it: “I hid in a hotel for three days. I wanted Edin, he wanted Milan, but there was no way.”
Dzeko stayed for another year and then joined Manchester City. After 119 goals in six seasons with Roma he became Simone Inzaghi’s striker at Inter, where he has 17 goals in 42 games.
Giroud meanwhile had his explosion Montpellier, where he won Ligue 1 as top scorer, and then had spells in England with Arsenal and Chelsea. He ended up at Milan but in January 2020, Antio Conte wanted Beppe Marotta to bring him to Inter.
In the end the Frenchman did not move, and fate brought him to Milan: “Yes, Inter wanted me, but in the end I stayed at Stamford Bridge and I won the Champions League the following year. Now I’m happy at Milan. It was written that it would end like this.”
