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AC Milan background: Berlusconi rejected Sarri 'because he was a communist'

AC Milan background: Berlusconi rejected Sarri 'because he was a communist'

Life is made of sliding doors and the same can be said also about football. Maurizio Sarri knows this well, starting his career in the Tuscan amateur championships and later moving on to Empoli, Napoli, Chelsea and finally Juventus. But who knows how his career would have proceeded had Silvio Berlusconi accepted him at the helm of AC Milan in 2015.

The fact that Sarri was close to becoming the Rossoneri coach has been discussed on numerous occasions by either former club CEO Adriano Galliani or the president himself, however, now Il Fatto Quotidiano (via ilbianconero.com) brings new background details from the summer of 2015 and the choice not to appoint Sarri at the San Siro.

According to the paper, Berlusconi would have said no to the candidacy of Sarri, suggested by Galliani, with political beliefs being one of the reasons, as the Juventus coach is known communist and also a heavy smoker, which was also not to liking by the former Italian Prime minister.

Eventually, Milan chose to appoint Sinisa Mihajlovic in what turned out to be an unsuccessful appointment and the Serbian coach was sacked before the end of the season, with Cristian Brocchi replacing him. It remains to be seen what could have been, had Berlusconi chosen Sarri during that summer.