GdS: Milan hunting for a director – how Tare and Paritici’s track records and ideas differ

SempreMilan

·18 March 2025

GdS: Milan hunting for a director – how Tare and Paritici’s track records and ideas differ

CEO Giorgio Furlani is leading the process to hire AC Milan’s next sporting director and he will soon have to start accelerating things.

According to this morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below), the casting has been open for a few weeks and Furlani is making his assessments. The choice of the new sporting director will have a fundamental impact on planning for next season though, so he is taking his time.

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In the next few days there will be interviews with more directors and everything suggests that the actual decision will now be in April. At the forefront at the moment are Igli Tare and Fabio Paratici, united by a great deal of experience in Italy, but divided by different ways of working.

The deals they have concluded in their careers say so: the former Lazio man, with limited financial resources, sharpened his wits and often sought young talents or players whose value has dipped.

The former Juventus and Tottenham man has instead been able to spend several tens of millions and to strengthen the squad has concentrated on large deals and big contracts.

Igli Tare’s work

In his 15 years as head of the sporting area at Lazio, Tare has had to take quite a few gambles. His choices have sometimes been met with skepticism by the fans, but his coaches have rarely been disappointed.

The jewel in the crown is Sergej Milinkovic Savic, fished out of Gent in 2015. He cost €10m, became arguably the best midfielder in the league and was resold in 2023 to Al-Hilal for €40m. In between, 69 goals in 341 appearances for the Biancocelesti.

Also worthy of applause is the Ciro Immobile operation, who they signed for €9.4m from Sevilla. With Lazio he scored 207 goals and left last summer for Besiktas, guaranteeing €3m (given he is now well into his 30s).

And what about Luis Alberto? Taken from Liverpool – who didn’t believe in him – he exploded in the capital, putting together 307 appearances, 52 goals and 79 assists. Tare’s first real move was Hernanes, resold with a capital gain to Inter.

Miroslav Klose arrived on a free transfer, Luiz Felipe was signed for €800k and repaid that with 144 games, while Felipe Anderson was sold to West Ham for a €30m capital gain. The investments in Muriqi and Vavro did not pay off, but then Candreva, Hoedt and Correa brought in a lot of money.

Fast-forwarding to the present day and Lazio are once again right in the top four fight. Mattia Zaccagni and Mario Gila are the players that stand out, while the choice of Marco Baroni as the head coach seems to have been a good one to now.

Fabio Paratici’s work

After the years in which he worked together with Beppe Marotta – first at Sampdoria and then at Juventus – from September 2018 onwards he was responsible for the Juventus sporting area.

The idea of taking Cristiano Ronaldo, at odds with Real Madrid, was his and the purchase of the Portuguese (€112m) plus his salary (€31m net) shook up the Old Lady’s accounts. Even though CR7 scored 101 goals in 134 appearances and won five trophies.

Also a lot were the €75m (plus €10.5m in bonuses) to get Matthjis De Ligt, who ended up being sold on to Bayern Munich for €67m. Joao Cancelo was signed for over €40m and sold to Manchester City for a valuation of €65m which included the €37m for Danilo, who had left Juve for free before.

The Chiesa operation was even more significant, with the €50m paid to Fiorentina. Adrien Rabiot is the free transfer to remember given his contribution to the Bianconeri, particularly in his last couple of seasons.

And at Tottenham? The squad reconstruction was very expensive and gave less satisfaction than at Juve. Richarlison, Dejan Kulusevski, Cristian Romero and Pedro Porro were the most expensive additions.