Gerry Cardinale spoke about the untapped market that is the football fans in the US, with AC Milan looking to expand their horizons. As Luca Serfaini argues, the Rossoneri must first focus on the core business and then the rest will come as a bonus.
Milan have made tremendous progress off the pitch since Cardinale took over the club. On the pitch, however, some fans would argue that they have hit a stalemate: barely making top four in 2022/23 and finishing second by 19 points behind Inter in 2023/24 after the Scudetto in 2021/22.
Given how the Scudetto season played out, this must be taken with a pinch of salt but Milan clearly want to do better, hoping that Paulo Fonseca can jumpstart the new era. Having said that, Cardinale spoke about ‘550 million fans worldwide’, with an additional 50 million in the US that they ‘want to focus on’.
In his latest editorial for MilanNews, Luca Serafini touched on the matter and urged Milan to focus on the core business before getting carried away. Regardless of the number of fans worldwide, the Rossoneri need to put the money where their mouths are.
“Gerry Cardinale talks about 550 million Milan fans in the world. We need to distinguish between aficionados and supporters: the numbers will add up if you keep the enthusiasm of the former alive and create loyalty among the latter. In this sense, the transfer market and then the results make all the difference in the world. These are the numbers that count,” he wrote.