VERONA, ITALY – MARCH 17: Zlatan Ibrahimovic looks on prior to the Serie A TIM match between Hellas Verona FC and AC Milan at Stadio Marcantonio Bentegodi on March 17, 2024 in Verona, Italy. (Photo by Alessandro Sabattini/Getty Images)
The Milan Futuro project got off to the worst possible start with an immediate relegation from Serie C at the end of their first season in senior football, which leaves many pointing the blame at technical director Jovan Kirovski and the man responsible for his appointment, Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
Here is where it all went wrong for Milan Futuro and the role that Ibrahimovic had to play.
What is Milan Futuro?
Milan are one of three Italian clubs along with Juventus and Atalanta who have a reserve team competing in Serie C for 2024-25.
Juventus Next Gen were the first of these sides to be established, rebranding in 2022, while Milan Futuro and Atalanta U23 joined the professional leagues for the start of the 2024-25 campaign.
All three of the aforementioned sides compete in different divisions of the Serie C set-up.
Atalanta U23 finished the 2024-25 season in eighth place of Serie C Group A, Juventus Next Gen in ninth in Group C, while Millan Futuro finished in 18th in Group B and lost in their relegation play-off against SPAL over the weekend, confirming their relegation to Serie D.
Why Ibrahimovic is partly responsible for Milan Futuro failure
Calciomercato.com claims that Ibrahimovic is the ‘number one responsible for this defeat across the board’.
Ibrahimovic has been serving as a senior advisor to RedBird Capital, who own Milan, despite not holding an official position with the club itself. While he is not a club employee, Ibrahimovic is effectively the owner Gerry Cardinale’s ‘man-on-the-ground’, and has authority to speak and act in his absence.
Among Ibrahimovic’s decisions this season was the appointment of former LA Galaxy director Jovan Kirovski as a Rossoneri academy director, overseeing the Milan Futuro project as one of his main responsibilities.
Kirovski was technical director of LA Galaxy when Ibarhimovic moved to MLS from Manchester United as a player.
Former Rossoneri defender Daniele Bonera was confirmed as the inaugural head coach of the Milan Futuro side at the end of June 2024.
Questions have since been asked over the appointment of Bonera, when another ex-Milan defender in Ignazio Abate, who had successfully worked with most of the current Milan Futuro team as U19 coach the year prior, was not considered for the job and then allowed to leave the club.
There had been reports of growing tension between Ibrahimovic and Abate prior to the coach’s departure. Among the reasons for the breakdown in that relationship comes down to the treatment of Ibrahimovic’s son, Maximillian.
Maximilian Ibrahimovic is a member of the Milan youth set-up, and was handed a professional contract last summer, which also raised eyebrows given that he was offered a deal before teenage sensation Francesco Camarda, who scored 485 goals in just 89 appearances for the Rossoneri youth sides.
There was also tension between Abate and Zlatan Ibrahimovic when Abate did not hand a Primavera debut to Maximillian at the start of the 2024-25 season.
In the end, Abate left to join fellow Serie C side Ternana, who eventually finished the season in 2nd place in Serie C Group B, the same league as Milan Futuro.
It was Bonera who led Milan Futuro into their first season in Serie C, but a poor start to life in charge meant that he was dismissed in February and replaced by another former Rossoneri star in Massimo Oddo, a member of Italy’s 2006 World Cup-winning squad.
With the costs of replacing the coach midway through the season, on top of around €4m spent on transfer fees for the Futuro side, and the costs involved with setting the team up in Serie C, it is estimated that Milan have spent a total of €15m on a project that has been dubbed a ‘failure’ by various outlets in Italy.
The relegation to Serie D is likely to result in the departure of Kirovski, Ibrahimovic’s choice to lead the Futuro side.
And for now, Milan are left considering how to move forwards with the Futuro side, given that they will now compete in a semi-professional league in 2025-26.
