Speaking on the YouTube channel "Milan Hello", the former Rossoneri executive and legendary player Zvonimir Boban spoke about his present, his future, but above all about Milan, a club to which he remains very attached. These are some of the most interesting excerpts from his interview.
Is there a big difference today between Inter and Milan? And at what level?
"When we look at the results, obviously. When we look at the club, obviously. When we look overall, what Inter and Milan represent today, it's obvious. It's easy to understand, it's very sad, but on the technical level, I don't think it's that far. On the level of how to create a team that works well, yes, it is far. If Milan makes 3, 4 right signings that rebalance things a bit and give logic to the game, which there isn't, because there hasn't been any all year, then one can hope to have a real team. Right now, this is not a real team, whereas Inter is, a competitive team that always knows what it wants, that has a clear identity. We don't, we don't have an identity, rather, there have been 100 identities this season, and none in the end was right. Because you can't, with these players, how they were brought in and made to play, have a clear identity. And this, many of us understood already in the summer. It was clear from the summer, and then unfortunately it was proven true."
Let's take a step back, to 2019 when you became an executive at Milan. What memories do you have?
"I left FIFA, Paolo called me when Leonardo left. My work at FIFA was pretty much completed, it just needed to be managed after we cleaned up the organization in three years. Paolo wanted to leave, I told him: 'You are more Milan than the Milan that exists today, you can't leave.' So I left for Milan, Paolo was uncertain whether to stay or not, I was happy to return to the club that I love deeply. I wasn't born a Milanista, but I became one. This club has something different compared to all the clubs I've known, and I say this not because I played there, but because it's true. I arrived, I realized that the team needed to be completely changed, and in fact, in six months we changed 13 players. It was clear that we weren't complete, in fact after the market I said in an interview that the kids can't play alone. And the club was quite pissed. But I had to say it because it was right to do so, they couldn't grow alone and in fact in January we brought in Kjaer and Ibrahimovic, two fundamental additions for the whole journey towards the Scudetto. I left two months later for reasons that the Milan fans know. Without those two, especially without Ibrahimovic, nothing would have been created of that Milan that went towards the Scudetto and also towards an identity. Which Pioli, even with many things I didn't agree with, managed to instill."
Is there any player from that season that you remember with pride because it had your stamp?
"There was an agreement with Paolo: he had more to say on the defenders. We did it together, we succeeded because there was too much respect between us. Sometimes I liked a defender who for Paolo was a disaster. Instead, on the tactical framing, I, having played as a midfielder in all systems, understood certain dynamics better than Paolo. In the end, we chose the players together, there was never a player signed without the other agreeing. Maybe the Saelemaekers deal was funny, I pretty much did it all myself: a 6 million operation, which then became 8 and someone will have to explain that one day. I must say, not to be inelegant, that I did some quite strange things with Furlani in the sense that we had to convince Gordon Singer to let us have at least some money from the sale of Suso and Piatek."
When did you realize that something was wrong? Boban answered:
"From the start. Already with Paolo that time at home when they told me the idea of how it works, I said to myself: 'Then we have to fight against our ownership for the good of Milan.' And Paolo says to me: 'More or less.' It's not like I didn't know before entering that certain cultures or non-cultures wouldn't have been a problem for us in our work. I accepted it as a very big challenge, for me it ended early but I would do it all again because it had to be done. Already in August they took away my signing authority without telling me, strangely. To all those who want to know how things went I say, read Paolo Maldini's interview with 'La Repubblica': that is sacred truth. Then there are many ugly details, but let's not burden people with so many small useless stories and ridiculous meanness and obstacles placed in absurd ways. They had put a certain Endrick there, who I don't know what he understands about football, who had to approve what we were doing as a technical controller. Even though I was there for only a few months, I'm proud of what we did. It was shown not with my work, but with Paolo and Ricky, who were very good despite the difficulties in creating a great path and then winning the Scudetto. I had signed a three-year contract and it was supposed to be: the first year for cleaning up, the second for stability, and the third for competitiveness. In all activities in the world it takes three years, let alone in a club like Milan: it's the minimum. But after three months they had almost delegitimized us with an 'ambush,' as Paolo called it. But that's how it works, the fund works like that: if I buy at 10 tomorrow it must be worth 15, there is no logic, they are not football people. It's not malice, it's that they don't understand football."
In your February 2020 interview, there are three key concepts: ambition, Milanism, and Italian-ness...
"I spoke of de-Milanization, that was the fear. And it was clear that they wanted to make that strength of wanting to belong disappear. Because it's too great an emotion for someone who wants to control things differently. 'Always Milan': what the hell does it mean? The whole world knows what Milan is, they even put 'Always Milan' on the bus. Please... Of course it's annoying, it flattens things, it makes you almost a robot. That's the idea, that fans become customers, players become assets. And so on, that's their way."
You were fired for just cause. How did it end? Boban commented:
"In the end, the just cause didn't hold up, it was proven. In the second degree, the part where Milan had to pay me for the reputational damage, let's say, was removed. But the just cause, which is the most important thing for me personally, doesn't exist. Now we still have to meet to close it in peace."
Someone in the Milan area, when purchases were discussed, tended to attribute certain operations to Moncada to discredit you and Maldini. What was your relationship with Geoffrey Moncada?
"He's an excellent scout, an excellent head scout. But all scouting offices in the world know the same players. Maybe it happens that someone arrives at this one or that one, but for Leao the whole world knew. It was important to understand if Leao could change certain attitudes to play at Milan. And Moncada is an excellent scout or head scout, but after the players, we chose them. He presented them to you and never entered into the merits, even elegantly. Because it's not his role, what does he know about what it means to play at San Siro or not? I believe we demonstrated that we understood who could and who could not. In the end, it's not like mistakes were made in the signings, but these are things to denigrate the strength of Paolo's work, since he stayed all those years, while I stayed seven months. But it was during those months that that revolution was made, where the foundations were laid for the team that won the Scudetto."
Was there any player that you and Paolo wanted to sign but were prevented from doing so?
"Personally, I went to close (a deal for) Dani Olmo. They didn't want to do it, it was January 2020. Everything was agreed, maybe it needed to be raised a bit, but it was an 18 million plus 2 deal. The boy wasn't even asking too much but afterwards something more had to be paid and in the end I didn't get any answer, so it was clear that it was a no. Then we also had Szoboszlai, everything was agreed: 20 million clause with Salzburg. Again denied and I said to myself: 'What is this stuff?' then I tried to see them and they didn't want to see us for two months and I had to do what I did. For some, it seemed sudden, the thing, but it wasn't sudden. But I couldn't say things publicly every day or push to meet for a clarification that never came. We had agreed that everything we sold would be reinvested: so there were almost 50 million from Suso and Piatek, these two (Olmo and Szoboszlai) would have arrived from those two. On Olmo I wasn't sure at first because he had a rather strange position on the field, his ideal was behind the striker but our game idea was 4-3-3 but also 4-2-3-1 which we later saw, in that case it was ideal to make him play there because Calhanoglu couldn't do it. He's a playmaker and an 8, but not a 10. Because he doesn't do one-on-ones and he doesn't have speed. In fact, in the end, with Brahim Diaz in that position, more was done. Szoboszlai was closed in Innsbruck, Paolo didn't go because he was afraid they would recognize him. He's an icon, wherever he goes, they recognize him. So Ricky and I went with Szoboszlai's father. We closed the deal, the boy wanted to come immediately: denied. I had to tell him: 'Look, let's see for the summer.' He was very disappointed, he wanted to come to Milan immediately. He's not a great player, but a good player. Olmo potentially was. Szoboszlai in my head was an 8 and over time he can become a great playmaker."
On Paolo Maldini's sacking, Boban said:
"A shameful page, done in a shameful way. Indecent, unacceptable, and I could say a thousand other bad things. Above all, inexplicable even for them. For them, Paolo represented the last obstacle to doing what they wanted. And the Tonali matter weighed a lot, Paolo would never have let him go. We are talking about a 70 million difference, I don't know exactly how much. A lot of money, but money that should never have come to Milan because Tonali should never have left Milan. Because the boy is a Milanista. When we contacted him, he told me he would never go to Juventus or Inter. Paolo and Ricky took him at a super figure for such a player. His first year he was stiffened by the love for Milan, by the respect for the stadium and many asked questions. My father told me: 'But look, he's afraid to play.' It was true, but given his potential, he needed a year of adjustment and to breathe freely. Before he wasn't free, he was too much of a Milanista. To let go of such a symbol, then after the Scudetto, after everything he did and how he did it."
This transcript relayed via Milannews.it.
