Il mese dei difensori

A.C. MILAN OFFICIAL

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00:00 Even the shopping campaigns have their own griff, their own line, their "titular" formation.

00:10 Among Milan fans, when we talk about the winter shopping campaign of 2007,

00:15 which would have been the flagship of the seventh Champions League won in Athens,

00:20 we don't talk about "winter window", but we say much more simply "Ronaldo Oddo Storari".

00:26 And we understand it right away. We understand what we are talking about and what historical moment Rosso Nero refers to.

00:33 It is quite normal, therefore, that even the January 2020 market,

00:37 in fact the real engine of the return to the Champions League before and the Scudetto the following year,

00:44 does not pass through bureaucratic formulas, but to understand it is enough to say "Ibra, Chier, Begovic".

00:50 Curiously, even in that case, a "out of class", a "defender", a "keeper".

00:55 For Ronaldo, the phenomenon and Ibra Supremacy are known to all the gods of football for their globality and their sporting eternity.

01:04 A separate chapter is deserved by the defenders. In these two cases, and especially in January.

01:10 In 2007, Massimo Oddo was the only one of the new players to play against Liverpool in the Athens final on May 23, 2007.

01:18 Just like, 13 years later, in 2020, it would have been specifically Simon Kier to surprise everyone really,

01:25 for his performance and his contribution provided to the Rosso Neri colours.

01:29 When a new Milan defender arrives in January, it is better to straighten the antennas,

01:33 because if Milan has passed from the real one, as a central reference pair,

01:37 the one composed of Musacchio and Romagnoli, to the one based on Kier and Tomori,

01:42 it is due to January, to his opportunities, to his margins of correction and maneuver.

01:48 When Kier arrived in Milan, Matteo Gabbia was there, and it was Matteo Gabbia,

01:53 who returned to Milan in January 2024, that wrapped a ribbon of professional pride,

01:59 of maturity and of continuous performance, the one impersonated by the record man of presence with the shirt of the Danish national team.

02:07 Simon, besides being a great player, is also a great friend.

02:12 When Simon arrived here in Milan, he immediately gave an imprint of what he is,

02:19 both as a person and as a player, a very strong personality, always very positive,

02:24 and consequently in that year he gave us a very important help.

02:28 At this moment, I see Simon very well, I always see him as the usual professional,

02:34 always the usual leader, both inside and outside the pitch,

02:38 so I am very happy to have found him both an example and a friend.

02:43 A year later, here is smoking, hot and served, as it should be in the cold months,

02:50 the story of Ficaiotto Mori at Milan.

02:53 Always the first month of the year, always out of the holidays and ready to immerse himself in the season routine.

03:00 A period in which, in relation to the red-black market, the rumors made names all in all known and all in all short in January 2021.

03:10 Rüdiger, Sima Khan, others still, but no one had managed to imagine at the beginning of the winter window of that January market

03:18 that the name of the new defender would not have been short, it would have been clamorously, absolutely kilometric.

03:25 "Oluwafika iomi, oluwadamilola" or "To Mori".

03:30 In Milan, from Chelsea, where his fans were in the dark because they did not want him to leave,

03:35 and on the social networks of London, it was written by the fans that that right of redemption left in Milan

03:41 could be a sporting danger in the future for the Blues.

03:45 In Italy, however, the perception was all in all different.

03:48 Few knew Fic, as he called it from the first days, Pioli, in Milan,

03:53 and the common thought was that with a price for the redemption so high, almost 30 million euros,

03:58 that young Englishman with Canadian citizenship and Nigerian origins would then return between Cobham and Stamford Bridge

04:05 in the following summer, in June 2021.

04:08 There was talk in those months of Tomori, especially in relation to his previous challenge against Wolverhampton,

04:15 when Ficaio Tomori had scored his first goal with Chelsea's jersey, with an incredible shot from off the air.

04:21 Instead, Tomori convinced everyone in Milan, first of all the club, to make an important investment,

04:27 and lived fully, humanly, football-wise, not only that season, but also the subsequent ones in the red and black jersey,

04:34 as Matteo Gabbia noted with conviction.

04:37 Fic, I think he doesn't need my words, his path has been fantastic,

04:44 I'm sorry that he's had a serious problem at the moment,

04:51 but I'm sure he'll recover, Fic has had a fantastic career,

04:55 he helped us a lot to win the Scudetto and to have a good season last year.

05:02 He's a player that we definitely miss at the moment,

05:06 but he's made a very important impression on Milan,

05:09 he's left a lot of good things behind and he'll definitely do so in the future.

05:14 But the history of the January market, of the first 20 years of the new red and black millennium,

05:19 is not only made up of new arrivals and official announcements,

05:22 but also of choices destined to make, to pay, to make a group, to produce results,

05:28 perhaps not easy choices, but right.

05:30 The history of the January market of 2022 by Milan confirms this,

05:34 which, compared to the previous ones, is completely different.

05:37 Rich in crossroads, full of shades and some emptiness.

05:41 It is worth remembering, in fact, that in December 2021,

05:44 in the first minutes of a genuine Amarassi-style league,

05:47 Simon Kjær was seriously injured on his knee.

05:51 And the relative operation at the Danish national cross had affected very closely

05:55 all his teammates, who had made the group even more and even better,

05:59 and who had compacted themselves precisely and above all to give strength to Simon.

06:04 A hard blow, from those who hit under the belt,

06:07 from those who hurt very hard, really, yet it was not over.

06:10 Yet there would have been another, in fact, in January 2022,

06:14 always against Genoa in the Coppa Italia in San Siro,

06:17 meniscus for Tomoni, with Milan taking the turn,

06:20 but with a certain type of defensive flaw that remains open.

06:24 All the observers at that point are convinced that Milan must absolutely,

06:27 inexorably, inevitably acquire a central defender on the January market.

06:33 A laugh of names, a laugh of rumors, a laugh of possibilities,

06:36 but the red-black technical area intervenes and declares,

06:39 as we will soon hear from Matteo Gabbia,

06:41 "No, we have our young players, let's give space to Matteo Gabbia and Pier Calulu.

06:45 Let's not take away their space, let them play.

06:47 The other defenders can recover throughout the season."

06:50 Young people who, at the beginning of January 2022,

06:53 when Covid had hit David Calabria, Alessio Romagnoli and Tomori at the same time,

06:59 had done very well against Rome and Venice, 6 points in 2 games.

07:04 An act of trust in a topical moment of the season and of the career,

07:07 which Matteo Gabbia has not forgotten even today.

07:10 It was certainly an important month that gave us a good push

07:16 to get there and to achieve what was a beautiful goal.

07:20 At this point, it could not be without full respect for the red-black tradition,

07:25 which has left the January market, even the open window of 2024,

07:29 totally impregnated and all played on the defenders.

07:33 Since even in this case there is a progress, indeed more than one,

07:37 because if in December 2021 Simon Kier was seriously injured

07:40 at a moment of play on the pitch and immediately after

07:43 he had to stay out for 20 days for Menisco Tomori,

07:46 the surge of situations in the last months of 2023

07:49 has left everyone in disbelief and with their mouths open, even among the opponents.

07:53 In the late autumn months of 2023 there was a real epidemic

07:57 at the defensive level in the red-black house.

07:59 Serious injuries, really unfortunate episodes,

08:02 and at least delicate for Pier Calulo in Naples,

08:05 for Malik Chau at home against Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League

08:09 and for Ficto Mori in December 2023 in Salerno,

08:12 in the last game before Christmas,

08:14 so much so that at that point the operation Gabbia +1 was launched,

08:18 with the return of Matteo Gabbia to Milanello,

08:20 plus the assessment of other market opportunities to enrich the defensive department.

08:25 And it is precisely in a field of this kind that the voice of Matteo Gabbia

08:28 is inserted in the January of the Red-Black defenders of 2024,

08:32 one of Milan and from Milan.

08:35 A player who with the Red-Black hype he has inside and his special will,

08:39 has been able to build an important path with the shirt that brings the colors he has always loved.

08:45 Since childhood, when he was born in October 1999 in Fagnano Oluna,

08:50 province of Varese, not far away, but very close,

08:53 I respect him, in Milanello.

08:55 I really hope that I can bring something good to the team,

09:00 mainly because our job is a team job,

09:03 so I really hope to be able to help all the teammates, staff,

09:07 to be able to improve myself as a player,

09:11 and then at the end of the year we will draw the sums on how it went.

09:15 [Music]

09:18 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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