Repubblica: Vergine key as Milan will have a second team in Serie C from 2024

By Oliver Fisher -

AC Milan look set to push ahead with plans to have a second team competing in the senior Italian league system from 2024, a report claims. 

It was first reported back in April that Milan are one of the teams interested in launching a team to compete in Serie C, just as Juventus do with their ‘Next Gen’ team to give younger players better exposure to the rigours of adult football.

Ricky Massara attended a forum called ‘Second teams in Italy and in Europe, a model for the future?’ back in November, which the president of the Lega Serie A Lorenzo Casini, the president of the FIGC Gabriele Gravina and Francesco Ghirelli – then president of the Lega Pro – attended.

Things then went quiet, but according to the latest from La Repubblica the plans are indeed still there. Their headline reads: ‘In 2024 Milan will also have their second team: in Serie C with the prodigy Camarda’.

The moves to keep improving the youth sector are continuing after they entrusted the department to Vincenzo Vergine, who arrived from Roma, and now there will be another step forward.

From next season the Rossoneri will have a second team, an Under 23 team involved in Serie C, hoping to create better pathways from youth football to the senior side.

Vergine was a proponent of this as he wants to ensure that Milan are – after Juventus and Atalanta – the third club to register a B-Team in the third tier.

Tags AC Milan

9 Comments

  1. Yes !!!
    about time as this will benefit us a great deal and especially if the u23 team also play with the same formation as the first team we will easier be able to intregrate our youngsters when called upon. Theres also the fact that from next season clubs will only be allowed to loan out 6 players per season so instead of offloading some players we can keep them and see if they just need a bit of extra time to further develope.

  2. Camarda is better than Serie C quality though. Right now he should be playing Serie B or a low level serie A team if he is indeed that good

    1. We can loan out max 8 players, so we can do that with our top talents. Those are a step lower in quality can still go to our Next Gen team and hopefully one will turn our ok.

  3. Think about the team we could have had, if this were done 1-2 seasons earlier:
    Plizzali/Desplanches/Jungdahl, Kerkez, Simic, Bartesaghi, Bozzolan, Brescianini/Adli, Zeroli/Eletu, Olzer/Cuenca, Maldini/El Hilali, Colombo/Nasti/Lazetic, Hauge/Chaka Traore.
    Hell, we could even send CDK down for some matches to regain his confidence. But at least now the first step is taken in the right direction. We can finally keep our talent, considering we can only loan out 8 max now.

    1. several of those payers you are mentioning are now playing in either serie b or c or in the second division in netherllands are you seriously dreaming about such team ? come one.

      1. Do you really understand what is the purpose of the “Next Gen” team? Because Milan could not offer our talents consistency in playing time, we were losing talents left and right. Teams in Italy are only allowed to loan out 8 players now, so the “Next Gen” team will give us wiggle room to choose who to loan out. And no, I am not saying all those players will become stars in Serie A, but to field a full team, we need 11 players, even though maybe only 1 of them will eventually become a star. And instead of selling players at dirt cheap, mere few hundred thousands, we can send them to out “Next Gen” team to develop a little more and increase their values.
        And no, I am not dreaming of such a team, but I am dreaming of Milan no longer loses out talents like Kerkez, or selling players like Desplanches for a few hundred thousands, only for him to cost 10x more the next season.

        1. of course i do and its not like i disagree that the u23 team will do talents good as i also said in the first post at the top. Had we had years before it could have helped those talents but a great deal of the talents mentioned has pretty much failed wherever they whent but ill give you that if we had u23 team maybe 5-6 years ago many of those talents could have greatly benefitted of it especially if the u23 is set up with the same formation as the first team as it would make it far easier to integrate players in the first team and still train them as we see fit. Overall though we doesnt really disagree that much anyways as i propably misread part of your initial post and also agree that even if the players doesnt succeed with us we might be able to fetch some more cash for them in the event of sales just like juventus has done over the years.

  4. Miretti, Soule and Fagioli have played the best part of a full season of Juve Next Gen matches. That’s a pretty good endorsement and I haven’t done anything like a deep dive of Juve’s team or looked at Atalanta at all.

    Iling Jr has played a bit less.

    It’s a way of continuing and the development of players after the age of 18 in a consistent system and gives the benefit of playing against men (as opposed to the boys of the Primavera).

    It also means that rather than Adli getting no minutes of match conditioning like he did last season, he gets to play 10 matches (he’d still be needed as a reserve most of the time).

    I only see positives. The gap between Primavera and Serie A is far too big a jump for an 18-19 year old. Players shouldn’t be jettisoned from the system that young because they’re so immature physically.

    If you can get a player to a Serie B club who wants to play him as a starting player, that’s still going to be a better option but this is not a reality for all loans.

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