AC Milan enter a new season hoping to improve but also aiming to continue from the same strengths that made them so formidable in 2021-22.
MilanNews recalls how on Friday – on the eve of the match against Udinese – France Football announced the thirty finalists for the 2022 Ballon d’Or award with Mike Maignan (also a candidate for the Yashin Award for the best goalkeeper in the world) and Rafael Leao making the cut.
It is a tremendous indicator of how far Milan have come to have two players in the top 30 in world football at the moment, even though Stefano Pioli believes it should be three: “I would have put Theo Hernandez in the 30, but I don’t know how many defenders there are on the list.”
It must also be remembered that the fact Leao and Maignan are at the club is also the result of the knowledge of the Rossoneri management and the scouting department plus the development of the duo under the watchful eye of Pioli.
However, it should also be noted that both want to improve both from a physical and a technical point of view to enter the elite of European football in their respective positions, if they are not there already. Doing that would ensure the growth of Milan’s project too, so everyone would be a winner.
