Fabio Paratici has confirmed that he had everything agreed to join AC Milan as their new sporting director, before the talks suddenly halted.
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Milan made the decision to hire a new director last summer, but the process was a farce. Igli Tare met with Gerry Cardinale and Zlatan Ibrahimovic in London, then Giorgio Furlani took control of the situation and interviewed Paratici, advancing things quickly with the Italian.
In fact, the former Juventus executive almost got the job, but the final signatures never arrived and Milan kept on looking. There was talk of Beppe Marotta’s involvement in kiboshing things, then Furlani eventually returned to Tare weeks or even months after the initial discussions.
‘Then they told me…’
Having served a ban while at Spurs and having now returned to Serie A to become Fiorentina’s sporting director, Paratici gave a long interview to Corriere della Sera (via MilanNews) in which he revealed that he was actually very close to joining.
Is it true that I was in talks with Milan last year?
“Not in talks. We had closed the deal. Twice in the space of a fortnight, all that was missing was a signature. Then they told me it was over.”
Did Marotta have a hand in it?
“I don’t know, I don’t think so, he denied it. And I certainly didn’t call him, what could I say? Was it you? And what could he have said? ‘No, of course not…’. Water under the bridge, my story is Florence.”
Is it true that Allegri had a hard time with Cristiano Ronaldo?
“Allegri is the most intelligent of all, his ability to relate to the players makes the difference. He had some difficulties at the beginning with Sarri, who was more tactically fundamentalist, but then he adapted. And he also won the Scudetto, many have forgotten about him.”