AC Milan coach Stefano Pioli has talked about the time that he first saw Mike Maignan and how he got the ball rolling on the Rossoneri’s eventual capture of the French goalkeeper.
Speaking during an interview with the French newspaper L’Equipe (via SempreMilan.it), the coach explained that he first saw Maignan play when Milan faced Lille in the Europa League in 2020/21.
Pioli immediately told his goalkeeping coach that he must follow Maignan’s development closely and then in July 2021, Milan signed him.
“Mike, I didn’t know him before playing against Lille in the Europa League. They beat us 3-0 at home (in the group stage, in 2020-2021), and at the end of the game I tell my goalkeeping coach, ‘That one, you have to follow him,'” Pioli explained.
“His communication and presence in the game impressed me. I was sure he was a very good goalkeeper, but he turned out to be even better than I thought. He is very meticulous in preparing for games; he is a player who wants to continually grow.
“It is exhausting to train him, because he asks a lot. But it is also great, because he is motivated. When you’re always the one, the coach, who has to motivate everyone else, there’s always something missing after a while. And Mike, he doesn’t lack anything.”
He has since been the number one goalkeeper for Milan and has perfectly replaced Gianluigi Donnarumma who many thought the club would be unable to replace without breaking the bank.
Unfortunately, Maignan missed a sizable chunk of this current season with an injury and Ciprian Tatarusanu had to deputise.
The injury also meant that Maignan was unable to go to the 2022 Qatar World Cup with the French National Team where he would have been backup to Hugo Lloris.
