GdS: Maturity and love for Milan – how Leao became the squad ‘spokesperson’ | OneFootball

One of the most intriguing things to come out after the loss against Lazio on Sunday was Rafael Leao’s post on social media, when he spoke almost on behalf of the team.

As La Gazzetta dello Sport reports, Leao is a candidate to leave Milan in the summer, he is openly criticised by Milan fans and the world, and yet for a few weeks – let’s say since mid-December – he has become a spokesperson for the club.

Of all the roles that could be attributed to him, this one was definitely not expected. After the loss to Lazio, Leao wrote on Instagram: “Unfortunately, we are against everything and everyone. We are working to get positive results again and the group will continue to be more united than ever!”

It was a message with a positive ending, despite the tension between him and the fans being evident on the pitch. It is not an isolated episode: in the last two months, Leao has spoken to the media more than before.

He was present at a press conference at the end of Bologna-Milan, he spoke both in the first leg and in the return leg (pre-match) of the Feyenoord tie, in mixed zone after Girona, in the mixed zone after Como-Milan, in the presser after Milan-Cagliari, plus during the celebrations for the Supercoppa.

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On top of that, he answered questions from the media in some for before or after in the games against Genoa, Red Star, Sassuolo, Slovan Bratislava and Bayer Leverkusen. As you can imagine, it hasn’t always been a party.

In complex situations, Milan almost always send Matteo Gabbia to speak, who has an ambassadorial way of speaking: calm and never the creator of big headlines. The other leaders like Theo Hernandez and Mike Maignan plus the new signings almost never go to speak in uncomfortable situations.

For the two Frenchmen, after all these years, it is obviously a deliberate choice from the club. Leao instead accepts the face-to-face with journalists and the club chooses him more and more often as a mixed zone voice.

Here are the reasons, from the club’s point of view: Leao is considered an intelligent boy, a player who cares a lot about Milan – much more than average – and it is no coincidence that he was included in the group of captains in the Stefano Pioli era.

Leao’s way of answering is much less controlled than Gabbia’s and his body language is unfiltered. You can tell when a question bothers him, when he’s disappointed, when he wants to react but he can’t and doesn’t.

In Bologna, he addressed a journalist directly: “Do you think we didn’t want to win?” After Cagliari, he was self-critical: “Today we lacked ruthlessness.” Nothing special, but it’s a change.

The winger is rightly accused of not having improved in consistency (he will finish around 15 goals and 10-12 assists, as in previous years) but surprisingly he has become one of the voices of the team. But in Milan’s strange season, nothing is surprising.