Milan director Ricky Massara explains why Gianluigi Donnarumma should’ve been pleased to receive the call he was being replaced by Mike Maignan. ‘After his refusal, we were obliged to find an alternative.’
The Rossoneri take on Lazio in the Coppa Italia quarter-final at 20.00 GMT.
You can follow all the build-up and action as it happens on the LIVEBLOG.
Donnarumma gave an interview with La Gazzetta dello Sport today in which he said that the final phone call he received from Milan was to tell him they had signed a new goalkeeper in Lille’s Maignan.
Massara therefore gave the club’s version of events to Sport Mediaset.
“We thought that calling him was a gesture we should make out of courtesy, after his refusal to accept our proposals, so we informed him that we had been obliged to find an alternative,” said Massara.
“It seemed only fair that we tell him directly before the announcement that we had signed another goalkeeper. We thought he’d appreciate that gesture.
“Now we are very happy to have Maignan at Milan and wish Gigio a luminous career. Maignan managed to settle in straight away to Italian football, becoming a reference point for the locker room and we believe he can continue to improve.”
Donnarumma was launched from the Rossoneri youth academy into Serie A at the age of 16, but after becoming the UEFA Player of EURO 2020 with Italy, he rejected a new contract and walked away as a free agent for Paris Saint-Germain.
This is the Coppa Italia quarter-final and the winner will face Inter over two legs in the semi-final.
“It is a competition we care a great deal about, we know it is a difficult target to achieve, as Lazio are in good shape and it’d be a difficult path forward too, but we are ready.”