Super agent Mino Raiola has revealed that his client Gianluigi Donnarumma was promised to be made the club’s captain prior to his contract extension this summer.
The teenage goalkeeper had initially rebuffed a fresh deal beyond 2018, and this led to widespread criticism from the club’s faithful, who took to social media to question his loyalty.
Eventually, Donnarumma agreed to a new four-year deal with the Rossoneri after they inserted two separate release clauses on his contract. The goalkeeper would have the £88m clause active in nine months’ time, should they qualify for next season’ Champions League. However, the value would be halved in case of their failure to do so.
Speaking on RAI Sport, Raiola slammed sporting director Massimiliano Mirabelli and general manager Marco Fassone after they failed to keep their promise of making Donnarumma the new captain.
“I’ve got nothing personal against Fassone and Mirabelli, I just don’t believe in their project. When all of Italy was panicking about the future of Donnarumma, they offered the captain’s armband without us asking for it. All I can say is that there was a promise which has not been kept,” he told RAI.
Experienced centre-back Leonardo Bonucci has since been made the new skipper following his surprise move from Serie A champions Juventus. The Rossoneri made a strong start to the campaign with victories in the first two league games, but they were pegged back by Lazio who thrashed them by a 4-1 scoreline last week.
Speaking to Milan TV, Bonucci admitted that it is his duty to lift his teammates, and he assured that there won’t be a repeat of the result in the future, he said: “We must learn from this loss. Today we saw that if we do not give 100 percent, we can be severely punished by our opponents.”