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Davide Bartesaghi is a shining example of a Milan Futuro graduate, but now the club want to see more players make the jump.
La Gazzetta dello Sport recall how ‘strange’ the two games against Chievo Verona were. On one side were the Futuro, who dropped into Serie D after a failure on the field in the first year of their project. On the other, a team that used to be in Serie A, and have relaunched from the bottom up.
Milan Futuro continues to travel its own path, where the league is only relevant up to a certain point. Last season’s relegation, which at first glance might have seemed like the final straw for the entire project, was quickly brushed aside.
Geoffrey Moncada’s words said it all: “Playing in Serie B, Serie C, or Serie D isn’t that important to us; what matters is creating talent, not the division.” Even one division lower, and despite a good but less stellar league standing, the mission continues to develop talent for the first team.
How the project adapted
Massimo Oddo, along with Mauro Tassotti, is one of the project’s key guarantors. Proof of this is the two-year contract renewal for both, rather than the usual season of trying to see how it pans out.
The coach could have legitimately aspired to a higher division, but he was convinced by what the club explained and proposed to him. The same goes for Tassotti: after a lifetime on the pitch it wouldn’t have made sense to accept joining Oddo’s staff for the sake of it.
Even after relegation, Milan never considered closing the door: the underlying philosophy and the €15m+ investment (considering last season alone) have not only kept the project alive, but have allowed it to be relaunched.
Management of the sporting department has remained in the hands of sporting director Jovan Kirovski, who likes to say: “Results are moments. Growth is a story.” Of course, the blemish of the drop remains, with shared responsibility.
Yet, it was more of a reputational blow than an operational one. Kirovski works closely with Vincenzo Vergine, head of the youth sector. This synergy has also led to players moving from the Primavera to Milan Futuro and vice versa during the current season.
For example, Cappelletti, Sala, and Ossola, all born in 2007, began the season under coach Renna and later became starters under Oddo. Milan, in its youth sector, have long chosen to introduce players into the Primavera team one or two years early.
This allows them to face physical and psychological difficulties before their time and in theory to adapt quicker. The belief is that this can then be a significant advantage in long-term evaluation, therefore when it comes to their move to Milan Futuro and then to the first team.
Results and talents
But how are Milan Futuro doing strictly on the pitch? The team are fourth in Group B of Serie D with 11 wins, five draws, and eight defeats, with the second-best attack in the league (37 goals).
Among the wins, the one against Folgore Caratese and the two against Chievo stand out, the top two in the league. Most recently, Massimo Oddo’s side secure a 1-0 home victory against Breno, to jump back into the play-off spots.
Wins are nice, but fundamentally there are bigger things to worry about. The greatest goal was and remains to develop players for the first team. The paths of Alex Jimenez and Bartesaghi are there to prove it.
With Bartesaghi, in fact, we go even further because he came entirely through the youth academy, the best possible example of the project itself. Then there is also a certain amount of movement in the market, which always intrigues.
The growth of some players has taken them elsewhere, like Maximilian Ibrahimovic who went to Ajax. Despite no longer being in the squad, he remains the top scorer (5) and top assist provider (5). Matteo Dutu went to Dinamo Bucharest and was the captain.
Diego Sia, now in Spain at Deportivo Mirandes, was among the captains, also making his summer debut in a friendly with the first team. The club’s stance? It’s a shame to have lost, but they are the best confirmation that the project is moving in the right direction.
In light of these departures, other players have obviously arrived, in addition to Yahya Idrissi Regragui and Magnus Dalpiaz. Like Jacopo Sardo, Malick Cissé and Aaron Babaj signed, all held together by a single glue: creating value through the growth of players, with winning being a nice bonus.
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