Dejan Savicevic admits he “can’t believe” Milan will no longer be owned by Silvio Berlusconi as his stay “would’ve been over quickly” without the 79-year-old.
Savicevic won three Scudetti and a Champions League with Milan between 1992 and 1998, the No 10 having been a Berlusconi signing and convinced to put his early struggles behind him by the President, who is set to sell the Rossoneri to a Chinese consortium.
Dejan Savicevic admits he “can’t believe” Milan will no longer be owned by Silvio Berlusconi as his stay “would’ve been over quickly” without the 79-year-old.
Savicevic won three Scudetti and a Champions League with Milan between 1992 and 1998, the No 10 having been a Berlusconi signing and convinced to put his early struggles behind him by the President, who is set to sell the Rossoneri to a Chinese consortium.
“I can’t believe it. It’ll take me years to get used to a Milan that is no longer Berlusconi’s,” he told La Gazzetta dello Sport on his 50th birthday.
“We’ve always been close, he helped me during difficult times. Without him, it would’ve been over quickly.
“After my first year, all the technical staff were against me, saying I wasn’t integrated, that I didn’t speak the language, but Berlusconi said, ‘stay.’
“In my day, it was tough. No 10s struggled because 4-4-2 was most prevalent and Coaches didn’t want to change.
“Baggio and I suffered, only Zola at Parma had the [No 10] role. Today, at least, with the 4-2-3-1, there’s that place behind the striker.
“I played as a right winger. I sacrificed myself, but we won [trophies].”
Savicevic then offered his take on where it had gone wrong for Milan in recent years.
“I think it started when they had to sell Ibra and Thiago Silva…” he concluded.