1 week ago
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Hellas Verona sporting director Sean Sogliano has admitted that he turned down the chance to move to AC Milan.
Sogliano has been widely praised for the work that he has done with Verona, managing to stop their status as a bit of a yo-yo club bouncing between Serie A and the second division. This has led him to be linked with some top jobs, but he has remained with the Gialloblu for four years now.
The director gave an interview to La Gazzetta dello Sport in which he also revealed an anecdote about his rejection of an offer from Milan, albeit one that came forward over a decade ago under previous ownership. MilanPress relayed his words.
“My first experience at Verona? Three great years: immediate promotion to Serie A, after eleven years, and then two relegation attempts. But in 2015, with the team already at a safe level, Milan approached me: Barbara Berlusconi, first and foremost, and Galliani.
“But Galliani was completely honest: ‘I’m now very involved in the transfer market.’ Very proud of the respect, but also very stubborn as I am, I replied: ‘If I have to be more of a problem than a sporting director, I’d rather not come’.
“I won’t tell you how many ‘What the f… are you doing, are you stupid?’ I got. But I’ll also tell you what Galliani confessed to me years later: ‘What a mistake not to hire you as sporting director at Milan’.
“To add insult to injury, Setti [Verona’s owner] had meanwhile looked around and said I wasn’t staying in Verona because I was too ambitious.”
Italian football seems to be the perfect backdrop for so many of these ‘what might have been’ moments, and ironically it is Galliani that has been linked with a return to Milan in recent weeks and months.
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