Leonardo ‘amazed’ by decision to sack Maldini and worries about impact on squad

By Oliver Fisher -

Former AC Milan player and director Leonardo has jumped to the defence of Paolo Maldini after he was sacked by Gerry Cardinale earlier in the week.

It has been a chaotic few days at Milan with the news that Maldini and Ricky Massara have been sacked from their positions as the technical and sporting director, sparking what many are calling a new era at the club.

We attempted to break down how things went from a position where Maldini had autonomy in the transfer market to all of a sudden losing all the trust of Gerry Cardinale in a feature published yesterday.

Leonardo was interviewed by Corriere della Sera about Maldini’s farewell, with his comments relayed by our colleagues at SempreMilan.it.

“As Ancelotti said, his dismissal is a lack of culture, of respect even towards the values of sports. And for those who are AC Milan supporters, it is a lack of self-respect, because Maldini is Milan. This decision creates disaffection,” he said.

“Not only am I amazed, the whole world of football is amazed by the manner he left and by the reasons. In the last two years, Milan have won a Scudetto and reached a semi-final of the Champions League.

“For over a decade the club has not closed its financial statements with a profit and now it is about to do so, not to mention that the overall value of Milan has quadrupled since Elliott took over from the Chinese to date.

“It is underestimated how crucial the personal and daily relationship is in the growth of a player, such as Leao or Tonali. The reactions on social media are proof of this. It is obvious that the players are disoriented and ask themselves: ‘If they did this to Paolo Maldini, what will they do with me?'”

One of the reasons that has been cited as a point of difference between Maldini and Cardinale is the American’s desire to have a data-led recruitment model.

“It seems that the new thing is buying players through numbers and algorithms, but look at that frontier is nothing new. This methodology has always been used in recent years, even when I was there.

“Like me at the time, he didn’t have the power of signature. It’s not like he woke up in the morning and bought a player on his own. signings have always been the result of a joint decision.”

Leonardo was also asked for his thoughts on Charles De Ketelaere, who arrived from Club Brugge last summer for over €30m and has so far struggled.

“He is 21 years old. And then it’s everyone’s operation, like Leao, Theo Hernandez, Maignan were everyone’s.”

Tags AC Milan Leonardo Paolo Maldini

28 Comments

  1. “It is obvious that the players are disoriented and ask themselves: ‘If they did this to Paolo Maldini, what will they do with me?’””

    Simple. Keep them or sell them. Like it always has been. The clubs either keep the players or sell them / let them go.

    1. it’s simple, sell and buy. I mean, what else is football than an investment. Next up from Cardinale is primavera dropshipping.

      1. Ignorant & disrespect? LOL.

        If you simplify things that what everything comes down to. The players are either kept or not. HOW they do those things is another thing but in the end there are contracts that binds the two parties together. Until there’s not.

        Cynical? Not at all. Just the truth. And once again, I’m not suggesting to treat players as objects but in the end, the players are assets to the club/company. How you treat your assets is – again – another question.

        So what changes now? The players know they shouldn’t act against the good of the club or say certain things in media. Well… Nothing new really. They knew that already. What else changed? Will the players be kicked out for no reason at all? Nope. Why would they? The club would lose money. They’d be sold if they didn’t behave. And the player has a lot to say where etc too. Nothing new there either.

        What if a player wants to stay forever in Milan and become a legend or even a symbol of the club? They still can. The current owners won’t be there too long and probably the next owners will treat the club legends better.

        It’s not like Milan all of suddenly turned into Auschwitz and is run by Hitler himself.

    2. Of course.. Players are just mindless slaves to trade who must play because we are paying. What’s the value of their emotions anyway? They are just machines with signatures on papers for the owner to use as toilet papers whenever they like.

      1. Do players care about the club or the emotions of the fans when
        they run out their contracts and then leave the club for free for more money at another club?
        Or the fans are just mindless idiots who spend their hard
        earned money to buy tickets, jerseys, club memorabilia?
        Those fans hard earned money is actually what’s paying
        those players salaries, not the ownership. Ownership is
        just writing the checks. The customers aka fans are
        paying the salaries.
        What’s the value of fans emotions?
        Goes both ways.
        It’s business.

      2. “Players are just mindless slaves to trade who must play because we are paying.”

        Who said or even implied that? No one. You are jumping to (baseless) conclusions here.


          1. “Keep them or sell them”

            Not my words buddy. Yours.

            And where is the implication of treating them as slaves?

  2. “It is underestimated how crucial the personal and daily relationship is in the growth of a player.”

    Quoted for truth. Moreover what young players need is a role model, and guess who fits best for such role. It’s not all about data, numbers, and algorithms. Maybe that can kind of method could work in a less intercorrelated sport like baseball. But football, well, there are so many codependency variables.

    Well, let’s see how Pioli could really develop young players this time around without the willingness to do extra miles from a figure like Maldini.

    1. ” without the willingness to do extra miles from a figure like Maldini.”

      So why does every player say Pioli is like a father-figure them and treats them well? Pioli is definitely one of those coaches who will do extra miles for his players.

        1. Check what Diaz has said about him. Check what Leao said after renewing the contract. There are others too.

          But sure, ignore the facts to make your texts look better. 🙂

          1. There is NOTHING about ‘fatherfigure’ from Diaz nor Leao. It only came from Dalot and about 2 years ago. Both Diaz and Leao simply expressed gratitude to Pioli and Maldini and said they both have learned a lot from Pioli.

      1. Once again, I’m not diminishing Poli’s role. But if we’re talking about doing extra miles to develop young players, he’s not doing it all alone. How many young talents that he developed into a ‘star’ prior to Milan? I can’t recall many fom his previous spells from Lazio, Fiorentina, and Inter. And all of the sudden when he’s working in Milan with all the directors and teams, he’s becoming the best in developing talents?

        And one of the best indications on the ability to nourish young talents is the players from your own academy. How many primaveras have Pioli promoted and developed into first team players?

        All in all, the owner reasoning on making Pioli the central of youth development project is just an easy way out.

        1. Perhaps Pioli find his hidden talent at Milan. 🤔

          But acting fatherly as a coach is normal, I won’t consider it as extra mile. On the other hand, doing it as Sporting Director is unusual, so it can be considered as extra mile.

          1. That’s the point. I can’t find any director that acts like Maldini. Doing things beyond his ‘payroll’. Every owner in football club would love to have director (+ icon, + role model, + club legend, + mentor, + etc etc) like Maldini. Whereas we just wasted this privilege for whatever reasons.

  3. That’s the point. I can’t find any director that acts like Maldini. Doing things beyond his ‘payroll’. Every owner in football club would love to have director (+ icon, + role model, + club legend, + mentor, + etc etc) like Maldini. Whereas we just wasted this privilege for whatever reasons.

  4. He’s saying basically what I’ve been saying the last little while. First off, it’s not just how you fire someone it’s also who you fired, what the person meant and the role they fulfilled beyond the standard employee. Secondly the basis for firing imo seems unclear (as alluded to here by Leo and also Nesta and basically most sensible people in the world of football). It couldn’t be sporting and financial results, so presumably there’s value placed on something else that is worth greater than those two aspects (which to me is ironic because those are exactly what an owner would want) and thats where I’d like to see Cardinale himself clear it up. Is it disharmony or other smut that recently been sold to us? Imo I fail to see Maldini going out on a limb to buy attackers especially like Adli and CDK. Sorry I just don’t buy that. Maybe a defender I can see that. Like Leo said, I’m pretty sure when purchases were made its “our” purchase which includes said Moncada and Pioli.

    Maldini was not only a director, he’s a mentor, an icon, an figure that represents Milan. There’s alot going into that one person which I believe Cardinale doesn’t fully understand and hence the backlash especially given the results being produced. In North America, these decisions by owners can be shoved aside quickly but in the world of football it’s a little different. He sent Scaroni to basically explain on his behalf but those word were quite telling. It was basically comes across as thank you for helping us by using your name and profile as an AC Milan icon and legend but now that we’re financially sound and achieved results we don’t longer need you. Which is quite ungrateful and further adds to the terrible optics from the sack. And like Leo and Nesta said (not me, before ppl say emotions and all that crap) these things matter, the humanness matter. Forza Milan

  5. This is my biggest concern over the sacking – the way he jumped on planes to convince players to join and his rapport with them off the pitch. That said, him leaving also means we won’t spend months chasing the wrong players like Sanchez. Plus Theo, Maignan, Leao etc are professionals and these things happen. If they want to leave just because Maldini’s not hanging around the dressing room anymore then I guess they weren’t really Milanistas in the first place.

  6. Well said Leonardo. Spot on. Time will tell. Players will remain professional because they are being paid to do so. However I would not be surprised if we have a weak transfer market that next summer many of the big ones will ask to leave or Redbird will sell for $$$

    1. yeah and then Milan will get relegated and you will be so happy because you can come here in this blog to tell everyone how right you are lmao

      1. That is the furthest from the truth donkey. Read kid. No matter if I like ur dislike ownership management or coach I will always support my team dip $hit

  7. And all the while, paolo, the gentleman he is, has remained quiet, as he has always been quiet before he came back to the club, and its sad that he cant work for any other club to prove his value, and they will be paying for many articles throughout the summer to bash his name, we know the truth about him, noone can take anything away from him, true legend, they envy him

  8. yeah and then Milan will get relegated and you will be so happy because you can come here in this blog to tell everyone how right you are lmao

  9. Thank you Leonardo. The smart people understands this situation. And a legend like Maldini whom done phenomenal in these last 2/3 years cannot be treated like this. This is offense to football and what football stands for. Unfortunately Cardinale didn’t like Maldini interview when he criticized the owners for not supporting the January market. Therefore we came to this. I hope that karma do it’s magic❗

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