20 years ago, the name AC Milan struck fear and admiration of soccer fans all over the world. The Italian giants were no question the best team in the world in their elegant red and black jersey, OPEL sponsor, and white shorts. In the last 10 years the club has fallen off the radar of Europe’s elite but this season the club is starting to bounce back.
AC Milan sit in first place in Serie A and could win their first league title since 2011, for that they will play a massive game against Lazio on the weekend. Behind the scenes the club is in the process of their fourth change of ownership in the last five years. Investcorp a Bahrain-based fund is ready to step in and buy the club from Elliott Management Corporation, and this has put the Milan heads on red alert.
According to Gazzetta dello Sport, the new ownership group would give Paolo Maldini and company €300 million to begin building the squad towards a Champions League contender. Here are some of the names AC Milan have in their sights for next season.
AC Milan targets with new ownership coming in
While AC Milan has continued to work on building a squad that could make a deep run in the Champions League, Milan has never in their history been big spenders nor have they chased big names. Rather identifying players that fit the AC Milan playing style.
The biggest name popping up is PauloDybala, the Argentine is out of contract at Juventus and could be coming to the red and black, with reports that Maldini has held several talks with Dybala’s agent.
USMNT midfielder Brenden Aaronson has been in the scouting system for quite some time now, and while Milan have been observing the American, Leeds United have made the tricky midfielder one of their prime targets next season. Brenden Aaronson has a market value of over 20 million euros and Milan with their new influx of cash could still snap up Aaronson who has played very well in the Champions League.
Lille defender Sven Botman is also on the radar as well as 20-year-old Spanish midfielder Adrian Bernabe currently at Parma in Serie B. Bernabe is considered a new wonderkid and AC Milan have been monitoring him carefully throughout the season.
Nicolo Zaniolo of Roma is also on the short list with Roma asking as much as €60 million, then rounding out the names is Monaco’s Aurélien Tchouaméni, who is being touted by many of the big clubs around the world.
For AC Milan winning the Serie A would be the first step and getting the club back into the spotlight, it has been a slow build up until this point, but it now looks like Milan is ready to recapture their glory days of the 1990’s.