AC Milan have had a kind of resurgence in the last couple of years. Since their recent purchase of the club by new owner Gerry Cardinale in 2022, the Italian giants have since then won the 2022/23 Serie A title and a spot in the Champions League semi-final.
The purchase of the Rossoneri was one of the most expensive club sales in recent football history. And that takeover hadn’t disappointed the fans so far. But what happened recently will not go well with the AC Milan fanbase.
AC Milan and RedBird Capital owner, Gerry Cardinal has decided to sack long-serving duo Paolo Maldini and Frederic Massara. The duo acted as Sporting director and Co-Sporting director respectively.
Maldini’s dismissal especially will come as a bitter shock to the fans, since he had been a one-club man all this time and had also done a fantastic job as a Sporting Director, The Italian legend made more than 800 appearances for the Serie A giants which still stands as a record. AC Milan also decided to retire his jersey number after he hung up his boots.
Massara on the other hand is a renowned football genius who operates off the field. His performances have been the benchmark for other clubs and he continued to do a great job alongside Paolo Maldini until he was sacked recently.
So who exactly is Frederic Massara and why was he sacked by AC Milan owner Gerry Cardinale?
I’m not crying. You are😥@Ibra_official announces his retirement from football👀#Ibrahimovic #Milanpic.twitter.com/oh7Ko1LmRw
— FootTheBall FC (@FootTheBallFC) June 4, 2023
Who is Frederic Massara?
Frederic Massara is a former Italian forward who mostly spent his days in the Italian lower leagues. He began his career with boyhood club Torino before eventually making the move to Pavia.
After spending 4 years with the Serie C club, the Italian joined Pescara and gained promotion to Serie A, which remains his only season in top-flight football. After that, he continued to ply his trade in the lower leagues of Italian football and eventually retired in 2003.
He decided to pursue a career in football itself post-retirement, and he joined Benevento as an assistant coach at the club. After jumping ships at a couple of clubs in the next few years, as a coach, in 2008 Massara joined Palermo as an analyst to the Director of football.
After a successful stint at Palermo, Massara decided to get his license for the Director Of Football in 2011. With success over there, the former Italian forward finally got the chance to join Roma as director of football in 2016. Although, he soon joined Inter Milan later and Chinese club Jiangsu Suning and made an instant impact wherever he went.
In 2018, Massara decided to rejoin Roma, this time as a General Secretary, alongside another football genius Monchi. After parting ways with Roma in 2019, AC Milan saw the chance to bring on board Massara who could change their fortunes and was hired alongside Paolo Maldini as the club’s Sporting Directors.
Why were Massara and Maldini sacked by Cardinale?
AC Milan are yet to make it official – the sacking of Paolo Maldini and Frederic Massara as Sporting Directors. The news has come as a shock to some of the senior players in the squad like Theo Hernandez, Sandro Tonali and Mike Maignan.
All of them were signed under the tutelage of the Sporting director duo and have been reportedly left disappointed with the owners’ decision to sack them.
Cardinale’s decision to part ways with the duo has already been communicated to the individuals involved in this situation and it has been made clear they are not part of the club’s future.
The decision has been taken plainly considering the fact that Cardinale and the duo of Maldini-Massara had different plans for the club and that it did not align with the owners of AC Milan. The board has long been wanting to establish a modern-day football model, one that is very different to the approach of Ricky Massara.