Ibrahimovic-Milan, third act. After the first two as a footballer (2010-2012 and 2020-2023, 96 goals and two championships), the 42-year-old Swede will now take on the role of manager, or rather advisor to the team owners and operational partner of RedBird. The agreement had been reached a few days ago, the first decisive yes had actually already arrived at the end of the face-to-face meeting on 6 November between the former champion and the Rossoneri patron Gerry Cardinale in a hotel on Corso Venezia in Milan, but now the official announcement is arriving, as anticipated by the Financial Times.
Ibra – reports the financial newspaper – will work closely with Gerry Cardinale, the founder of RedBird, to further expand the investment company’s existing portfolio of assets in sports, media and entertainment, in addition to working with AC Milan. And there is the Swede’s first statement in the new role: «RedBird has collaborated with some of the world’s greatest athletes, teams and business figures to create businesses with meaning and impact. I look forward to contributing to their investment efforts in their sports, media and entertainment businesses.” «What makes Ibra an absolute winner is not only his physical talent, but a high intellect and a great entrepreneurial spirit», the first comment from Gerry Cardinale.
Ibra, the new role
Finally, it must be said. Because while waiting to understand what his tasks will actually be – how and how much he will be able to have an impact, given that for him too it will be the first time as a manager after 24 years as a footballer – the moment is very delicate: on Wednesday in Newcastle Milan will play for their permanence in the Champions League on an inside or outside night and the hope (of the fans, but also inside Casa Milan) is that the proverbial “Ibra’s shock” can be of help, at least on a motivational and environmental level. His role in detail is yet to be defined, it will emerge over time. However, one thing is certain: he is not coming to “appoint commissioner” of coach Stefano Pioli, with whom he has already spoken several times in recent weeks.
The two know and appreciate each other, in the past there has been no shortage of heated confrontations, always for field issues, but the relationship is strong and the understanding is solid, of real respect. However, as mentioned, Zlatan will not be on the technical or management staff, but will have a role as a consultant to the owners. Certainly, despite the inevitable difficulties of a job that is new to him, he will be able to make use of his enormous experience as a footballer, or rather as a champion.
Ibrahimovic’s new life off the pitch
«I need time for myself, to understand what I want to do when I grow up» he said immediately after the tears of farewell to football played on 4 June at San Siro. His absence from football did not last long, six months. The call of football is too strong, but also of Milan, the team of his heart, the only one that he truly loved among the ten clubs for which he played. The only one who could make him take off his pre-retired millionaire clothes to get back on the field, to try to make a difference once again, even if in another way. He will continue to manage his thousand businesses, from padel to real estate, from apps to digital (these weeks of waiting have also served to define these aspects), but now Milan will once again occupy his time.
Affections also weighed in his “yes”: the fact that his children play in the Rossoneri youth academy, but also his love for Milan, a city that he and his family now consider home, so much so that they have not moved from here. The attic of Porta Nuova, the walks in Piazza Gae Aulenti, the motorbike trips to Lake Como, the road to Milanello. Milan as a permanent center of gravity. For Ibra it will be a personal challenge, yet another. Perhaps the most difficult, certainly the most intriguing.
2023-12-11 10:19:04
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