Struggling in Serie A, AC Milan recruited Portuguese coach Sergio Conceiçao on Monday after the dismissal of his compatriot Paulo Fonseca, just six months after his arrival on the Rossoneri bench.
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One Portuguese technician chases the other to straighten out a Lombard team incapable of stringing together victories and falling behind in the championship, 8th, 14 points behind the leader, Atalanta Bergamo.
Free since his departure from FC Porto a few months ago, Sergio Conceiçao signed a contract until June 30, 2026, returning to Serie A which he knew as a player from 1998 to 2004, under the colors of Lazio, Parma and Inter Milan.
The 50-year-old former Portuguese international has spent his entire coaching career in his country, with the exception of six months spent at FC Nantes in Ligue 1 in 2016-2017.
AC Milan’s draw, Sunday at home against AS Roma (1-1), was fatal to Paulo Fonseca, who followed the match largely from the stands of San Siro: warned four minutes earlier, the former Lille coach was sent off in the 43rd minute for another outburst of anger against the referees. Monday morning, an official statement relieved him of his duties.
While the club is eight lengths from 4th place, qualifying for the Champions League, so important in financial terms, there was urgency and the Lombard leaders decided to act while their team is going to fly to the Saudi Arabia where they will play the Italian Super Cup, with a semi-final against Juventus on Friday.
Fonseca, 51, is the sixth coach fired this season in Serie A.
12 wins in 24 matches
Fonseca has always been on the hot coals since his appointment six months ago, poorly received by fans who were hoping for a coach of a completely different caliber.
Its record proves them right: the team has only won twelve matches out of 24 played in all competitions. More serious, since three victories in a row in September, she has no longer been able to string together two successes in the championship.
To Fonseca’s credit, the 2-1 victory in the Milan derby against Inter and a good run in the Champions League (4 wins, 2 losses) including a success against Real in Madrid (3-1), which leaves hope to qualify for the round of 16, directly or through the play-offs.
But his management of the team’s stars, Rafael Leao and Théo Hernandez, relegated to the substitutes’ bench to prick them, or his overly cautious use of the 16-year-old prodigy Francesco Camarda did not help to establish his authority.
More broadly, the entire AC Milan institution, which has just celebrated its 125th anniversary, is going through a major crisis.
The fans of the club with 19 Italian championship titles and seven Champions League crowns have difficulty being in the shadow of Inter, the hated rival who won their 20th championship title last May. They are particularly upset against their American owner Gerry Cardinale and against his advisor, the former Swedish striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
They criticize them for their lack of ambition in terms of transfers and the error in casting Fonseca to succeed Stefano Pioli, the coach of the last “scudetto” in 2022.
“ It’s a new football that’s arriving, dominating and offensive, with a completely different energy. », promised Ibrahimovic in June during Fonseca’s presentation. In just six months, this energy has already been consumed.
Conceiçao must now get back on track and already has only a few days to prepare for the next match against Juventus, where one of his sons, Francisco, has been playing since this summer.