Let the Euros begin! [Newsletter]

Jun 12, 2024

The 2024 edition of the Euros is upon us and eight AC Milan players will be battling it out for the prestigious trophy. Six if we don’t include the confirmed departures, but this tournament feels more like an extension of the 2023-24 season anyway, so we will treat these players as red and black for one last time. In any case, let’s go through each player and the journey that awaits.

Starting with one of the favourites to clinch the trophy, Mike Maignan, Theo Hernandez and Olivier Giroud will be out for revenge with France after the defeat in the World Cup final. While England are the odds favourites to prevail, many believe that Didier Deschamps’ men are more likely to go all the way, and the Milan trio will play a pretty important role.

Maignan will be the starting goalkeeper, having taken over from Hugo Lloris, and Hernandez was already crucial during the World Cup. Everyone knows about Giroud and his successful history with the national team, but it remains to be seen whether he will be a starter. It will likely depend on the opposition as Deschamps isn’t exactly afraid of shaking things up.

Moving on, Rafael Leao will be hoping to break through on an international level after some promising friendlies as of late. The manager Roberto Martinez certainly appears to believe in the Milan star a lot, but as always when it comes to the Portuguese national team, the competition is fierce. One would like to think that on a good day, Leao should certainly be ahead of João Félix and others for the left-wing spot.

Tijjani Reijnders is another of the Milan men expected to play a key role this summer, having cemented his spot in the Dutch midfield. He only made his national debut last September so this is definitely impressive, and he will be heading into the tournament in very good form. The Netherlands do have a fair bit of talent so they will be interesting to watch, also facing France in the group stage.

In Group C, Luka Jovic and Simon Kjaer will be up against each other, representing Serbia and Denmark respectively. The striker certainly cooled down towards the end of this season and there are many question marks regarding his form, while there is no form to talk about for the centre-back. He only played a few minutes of his farewell game after just recovering from injury, but perhaps now he will be fully ready.

The remaining player is, of course, Noah Okafor. While most will agree that this past season was positive in many ways for the forward, the inconsistent playing time was not ideal and the Swiss head coach was far from happy with that. The 24-year-old has injuries to blame, but at least he can now look forward to a starting role and hope that Paulo Fonseca is watching on (he will be).

News Bulletin

➤ There has been a lot of movement related to the Milan youth sector. Firstly came the news that Francesco Camarda has signed an extension, then came the departure of Clinton Nsiala and finally the long-awaited confirmation that Milan U23 has a spot in Serie C for 2024-25.

➤ The AC Milan Women are heading for a crucial summer, too. We reported that the club are interested in appointing Dutch coach Suzanne Bakker as the next coach, while Laura Giuliani and Kosovare Asllani are moving closer to renewing, but Valentina Bergamaschi is Juventus-bound.

➤ At the time of writing, discussions have reached a make-or-break point between Milan and Zirkzee's entourage. After suggestions that the gap on commissions was being reduced, it was made clear that the €15m demands remain and that has left Giorgio Furlani and the ownership with a decision to make.

➤ Some of the other transfer links from recent days include the surprising story that Adrien Rabiot is a concrete targetwith his deal at Juve set to expire. Union Berlin's Diogo Leite has emerged as a centre-back candidate, as has Matty Cash of Aston Villa for the right-back role.

➤ Thursday could be a big day for multiple reasons. The club have let it be known that there will be a media briefing in which Zlatan Ibrahimovic will do a press conference, and it is expected he will confirm Paulo Fonseca will be the new head coach.

➤ In terms of features and analyses over the past week, we took a look at how Fonseca follows Milan's trend of not appointing 'winning' managers, why the club are strongly inclined to sell Mike Maignan over Theo Hernandez and what the implications are regarding Milan's crusade against agent extortion.