As was widely expected following the RedBird Capital takeover, Ivan Gazidis will depart Milan after four years. His contract will run out on December 5th and will not be extended. He and president Paolo Scaroni weighed in on the matter on the club’s official website.
Elliott appointed the South African executive while the club was in hot water financially following the Yonghong Li era. He previously worked at Arsenal for nine years. He repaired their finances through his disciplined vision, eventually allowing the fund to sell the team for €1.2B.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, Milan started 27 new partnerships with Gazidis at the helm. The value of their brand raised by 76 percent in the span of 18 months. In the last two years, they got closer to the top ten in Europe in terms of enterprise value.
As far as the squad is concerned, the Rossoneri progressively got rid of big-money contracts and invested in youngsters handpicked by directors Paolo Maldini and Frederic Massara. Plenty of their gambles paid off, such as Theo Hernandez, Rafael Leao, Fikayo Tomori, Pierre Kalulu, Sandro Tonali, and Ismael Bennacer. On the other hand, their strict policy on wages led to the Bosman departures of Hakan Calhanoglu, Franck Kessié, and Gianluigi Donnarumma.
Gazidis wanted to hire Ralf Rangnick a couple of years ago, but he listened to the other Milan directors that preferred sticking with Stefano Pioli, who led them back to winning ways last season. According to Calcio e Finanza, Giorgio Furlani is the early frontrunner to replace him. He’s already a member of the board. He’s a portfolio manager for Elliott but has strong ties with RedBird Capital and was instrumental in the ownership change.
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