Milan Reach Out to Ex-Atalanta Exec and Juventus Head
Milan have broadened their scope to find a new apical director and added two more candidates to their shortlist: former Atalanta exec Lee Congerton and Juventus chief Cristiano Giuntoli. The former has jumped into pole position, La Gazzetta dello Sport informs.
The official spent two years in Bergamo, contributing to the acquisitions of Ademola Lookman, Ederson, and Rasmus Hojlund. He left in January 2024 and joined Al-Ahli shortly thereafter. The 51-year-old got his start behind the desk at Hamburg in Germany. He then moved to the United Kingdom, working for Sunderland, Celtic Glasgow, and Leicester City.
Milan will announce their new front-office addition soon after the season finale, with Congerton ahead of Igli Tare in the brass' preferences, while it'll be challenging to poach Tony D'Amico from La Dea, and Giuntoli politely declined their approach, Corriere della Sera reports (via Mediaset).
The exec was recently confirmed by the Juventus CEO. He's under contract for four more years and earns €2M.
It has taken so long that only luring somebody from another team could justify it. Those switches happen at the end of the campaign. It's tough to know who does what at Atalanta from the outside, as he wasn't the sporting director there and had top-end colleagues. It's tricky to get out of Saudi contracts, but he might have been there for long enough.
Reaching out to the Bianconeri official was worth a shot, as they are quick to dismiss people when things aren't going well. They'd actually need somebody who can shoulder a lot of tasks like him, but he has little reason to jump ship willingly, especially to head to a team in worse shape.
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I'd knock on his door, 'Is there anything you want me to do in training to be able to get myself back in the team?'. I didn't understand. I was confused for so long. I remember just channelling my focus on training. Advertisement 'It wasn't until I was having lunch with some boys after training and Mourinho walks in. He was someone I had met when I was at Fulham, as his son (a goalkeeper, also named Jose) was there. He came over and said, 'DJ, I want to know why you've not been playing recently. The last game you were doing good. Are you not fit? What's the problem?'. And I told him, 'I honestly don't know.' 'Mourinho said, 'OK, now you're going to come train with us, and I'm gonna tell you the reason why I think you don't play.' I ended up training with them most of the time. He couldn't give me a reason why I wasn't playing. He said, 'If I could say one thing – never walk (when on the pitch)'.' 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Spells elsewhere in the Netherlands at Telstar and Emmen followed but his progress has been stymied by two surgeries in the past two years, the first for a broken kneecap, and the second for a knee meniscus injury sustained as London-born Buffonge was preparing to join up with Caribbean country Montserrat's national team. His energy at the moment is away from the pitch, working on creating a platform that he says is to 'coach young men on mindset, masculinity, purpose and motivation'. He adds: 'I'm teaching the lessons that go beyond sport — discipline, resilience; things I had to master during my time at Manchester United and beyond.' He is still in regular contact with former team-mates such as Sancho, another Londoner who went north to pursue his football dream. They met through Gomes when Sancho was at Manchester City's academy. Buffonge has watched the career arcs of Sancho and Rashford at United with interest and, while he prefers to speak in general terms, he believes players should be judged on their on-field performances. 'To bring a person's appearance, or the car they drive, into their performance, I don't think is fair,' he says. 'Players train the way they feel inside. If these players are not feeling appreciated or heard, or they're not allowed to do what they do best, they're going to feel a type of way. 'And I feel like coaches don't have the time nor the care to really figure out why a player may be training a certain way. They'll just start pointing at all these other things, kind of like a smokescreen. 'We've all seen what Marcus did at Aston Villa (on loan for the second half of last season). These players who can do amazing things have that talent living inside, but due to a lot of external factors, sometimes it can get blocked. These shots at a person's character are what can have a negative impact, which is part of the work that I'm doing now. 'People who've watched me go through what I've gone through and what it must take, on top of the fact they see what I do on the pitch, it equates to a trusted voice.'
