Gerry Cardinale, AC Milan owner and RedBird founder, spoke during the Business of Football Summit - The Path to Profit event.
Here are his words:
"Zlatan Ibrahimovic allows me to be in the United States and at the same time to be in Milan. He has the authority to be my voice at Milan with players, staff, and anyone else."
On the stadium:
"Yes, we will do it. Milan will be the perfect place. It should be right for Serie A and for the league. I will form a company to build the stadium, and I hope it can be done for the entire Serie A. I love San Siro. The question is, can we improve? The answer is yes. We have a lot of experience in building stadiums."
On the need to "change":
"I think I know what you're asking. Change is not a bad word. I'm relying on Zlatan for his advice and perspective. Everything around Milan needs to 'change,' although I would use another word: 'evolve.' Change is a black or white word, as if we have to throw everything up in the air and start over. There's no need. Evolving is a better process. We'll look at the personnel, we've had a lot of injuries. I'm not satisfied, Zlatan is not satisfied, with not being in first place in Serie A. But we'll get there. We're a young and new team that currently isn't doing badly. But not doing badly doesn't necessarily mean doing well, right? We have work to do.".
Gerry Cardinale added:
"I hope to find a way to capitalise on my investment. There are many ways, but we're not even close to doing it.."
On injuries:
"If you buy a player and you don't have him available, what do you pay for? It's frustrating, and you play a lot. The medical aspect at Milan needs to be improved."
On choosing Zlatan Ibrahimovic to join him at RedBird:
"The positive thing about having observed for a year is that I had the opportunity to get to know Zlatan. When I met him I was really curious. I wanted to take his being part of the most important sports world in Europe and put him in our world of understanding investments. When someone buys a club, they start putting in consultants and executives of various kinds, all things that people like me are familiar with. But who knows European football and Milan better than Ibra? He is the greatest team man I have ever met. I'm not just talking about on the field: his humility, his intelligence. We have experience collaborating with people like him, from Dwayne Johnson to LeBron James to Ben Affleck and Matt Damon, and in Zlatan, I see the same things. If you can find people who can cross over their world and field to enter mine, then you create a very powerful partnership."
Gerry Cardinale is accompanied by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who had some important statements to say. (READ HERE)
