A phone call and the Euros factor – the background on Milan’s Nagelsmann attempt

As AC Milan continue to scour the market and evaluate the potential options, the name of Julian Nagelsmann was reportedly in the thoughts of the management.

This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) has a double-page spread dedicated to Milan’s pursuit of a new head coach to replace Stefano Pioli, and it starts with the reasons that they have slowed down their pursuit of Julen Lopetegui.

They also talk about the alternative candidates and they mention three names above all who are the most credible ideas: Paulo Fonseca of Lille, Roberto De Zerbi of Brighton and Mark van Bommel of Royal Antwerp.

The former has been mentioned in the background for around a week now, De Zerbi is a fashionable name that has a connection to the club, while Van Bommal is ‘the outsider to keep an eye on’.

The paper goes on to mention further down that date there are six coaches with whom Milan have already made contact (in addition to Lopetegui and Fonseca), and that one of them is Julian Nagelsmann.

Bayern Munich made the bold call to fire Nagelsmann in March of last year while they were heading for the Bundesliga title and still in the Champions League. The German national team was where he headed next, and he will lead them into a home European Championship.

There had been some speculation that the former RB Leipzig coach could actually take a club job ahead of 2024-25 – with Bayern mentioned as being interested in bringing him back – and La Gazzetta state that Milan reached out to him.

However, the 36-year-old is clear: his focus is on leading his country Germany in this summer’s Euros with the hope of winning it, therefore a new role at club level is far from his mind.