Tonight is the night of AC Milan’s Christmas party, and before that at Milanello today there was a ‘Secret Santa’ initiative that went down really well with the squad.
Milan met this morning at the training centre to prepare for the game away against Salernitana on Friday evening which will be the last game before Christmas. After that, they will play next on December 30th against Sassuolo at home.
According to what Manuele Baiocchini reported during his update for Sky live from Milan, the team manager Alberto Marangon thought of an initiative which he described in the afternoon to the journalist.
“There was this nice initiative from Milan conceived by team manager Alberto Marangon, to whom compliments go. About a month ago he told all the players that he wanted to play a game: ‘The invisible friend’,” he began (via Radio Rossonera).
‘The invisible friend’ is essentially Secret Santa, which is a Christmas tradition in which members of a group or community are randomly assigned a person to whom they give a gift. The identity of the gift giver is to remain a secret and should not be revealed.
Baiocchini continued: “He had all the members of the team group extract the cards, therefore not only the players but also the coach, staff and doctors. Each of these took the name of a person to whom a beautiful, thoughtful and non-commercial gift should be given.
“A gift for which everyone had to inform themselves about the recipient’s interests, private life and family. And this morning was the time to open presents. The Milanello gym was full of unwrapped packages.
“Beautiful ideas came up, from unobtainable perfumes to a trip to Disneyland for the whole family. And also a nice gift for Stefano Pioli from a player: a frame with all the photos of his grandchildren with the caption ‘Grandpa you’re fantastic’.
“He appreciated the initiative very much, as did the entire Milan team group. An initiative that he aggregated, a Christmas moment. The Christmas, family and group spirit was felt strong. A uniting force that also comes off the pitch when these moments arise.
“The same ones that will then continue, because over the course of these days the club will carry out solidarity initiatives. Today Giroud will be at Buzzi, the pediatric hospital, to bring gifts to the children. Leao will be there tomorrow. Milan wants to show solidarity especially towards people in difficulty.”
