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AC Milan Appoints Paulo Fonseca As New Manager
Italian professional football club, AC Milan, has announced Paulo Fonseca as its new manager.
The Serie A club announced this development in a statement issued on Thursday, where it stated that the 51-year-old former Roma coach has penned a three-year contract with AC Milan.
“Milan’s new coach will be Paulo Fonseca,” said former Milan forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, representing the owner, at a press conference.
Sportxparte reports that Fonseca prior to this appointment, has been with French club Lille over a period of two years.
Fonseca would not take the place of Stefano Pioli, who was sacked at the end of the 2023-24 campaign after heading the club for five seasons.
“We studied very carefully what he did, how he prepared his matches,” Ibrahimovic noted on Thursday.
He added: “We want him to bring his identity of the game, his offensive style to our team, to our players.
“After five years, we wanted something new, with all respect to Stefano Pioli.”
Fonseca, born in Nampula, Mozambique, in 1973, embarked on his coaching journey in Portugal, working at Pacos de Ferreira, Porto, and Braga.
He then moved on to Shakhtar Donetsk in Ukraine, where he achieved remarkable success, securing seven trophies and an impressive record of 103 wins in 139 matches.
In 2019, Fonseca took charge of Roma, leading them to fifth and seventh-place finishes in Serie A. He later joined Lille, guiding them to fifth and fourth place in Ligue 1 and securing European qualification in both seasons he spent in France.
Milan, on the other hand, had a disappointing season, failing to win any trophies. Their last league title was in 2022, and they finished far behind their city rivals Inter, who claimed the championship.
Furthermore, Milan’s Champions League campaign ended prematurely at the group stage, finishing third behind Dortmund and Paris Saint-Germain.
In the Europa League, they were eliminated in the quarter-finals by AS Roma.
Fonseca’s appointment as Milan’s new manager marks the second significant managerial change in Italy within two days.
Just yesterday, Juventus announced Thiago Motta as the successor to Massimiliano Allegri, who was dismissed last month.
