CorSport: ‘Decisive meeting’ – how Tare retook pole position in Milan’s director pursuit | OneFootball

AC Milan are continuing with the process of hiring a new sporting director, and a report has claimed that Igli Tare is firmly in pole position.

As Corriere dello Sport recall, Tare was the first to be contacted in February and the first to be met in London. Now, after the Fabio Paratici idea was abandoned, he is once again the big favourite to become the new sporting director of Milan.

Tare is taking big strides towards a role that Milan see as being one full of responsibility and influence, split between the offices of Casa Milan and the training complex of Milanello. The exact tasks that will be discussed in the imminent meeting between the Albanian and Giorgio Furlani.

It will probably not be a decisive interview, but the classic step that will open the doors to a full agreement. The CEO Furlani has made it clear that he is looking for a sporting director that he himself defines as ‘traditional’.

In other words, Milan want a figure who is close to the squad, and someone who proposes and shares with the rest of the management the choices on the head coach, including obviously incoming and outgoing players.

This type of director has been lacking inside the Rossoneri in the last two seasons. After the dismissal of Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara, in fact, the classic tasks of the sporting director have been divided among several people without obtaining the desired results.

In the 2024-25 season Milan have wasted much of the good built in the last five years on a sporting level, most likely also due to the lack of a professional figure with a great – and, why not, exclusive – experience in football.

Tare ticks the boxes

The identikit, more or less, coincides with that of Tare. On his CV, there is also one more specification that his rivals in the race for the Rossoneri desk (Atalanta ‘s Tony D’Amico first and foremost) do not have: the status of a free agent.

Being free from contracts with other clubs, the former Lazio player can meet Milan immediately, proposing his projects without them being conditioned by the current season and planning the possible following year in his new role.

It is a significant advantage that could have been exploited back in February, when Gerry Cardinale and Zlatan Ibrahimovic met Tare in London to discuss the idea of him taking the role, without Furlani being present.

Then there was the trip to New York, with the reaffirmed and increased powers of the CEO, and the intense negotiations with Paratici, which ended with nothing done. In short: Milan, if they were to reach an agreement with Tare, will have wasted time again.

The casting for the sporting director should not be extended beyond April and the imminent meeting with Tare shows it. The new director will have to have time to select, meet and choose the new coach after having sounded things out.

Then it will be time to make decisions on some players within the squad including renewals (Theo Hernandez above all). The planning for 2025-26 has begun already and Milan, after such an incredibly difficult year, must do everything to not arrive unprepared again.