Geoffrey Moncadawho arrived at Milan in 2019 from Monaco as Chief Scout, has held the role of Technical Director of the Club since the summer of 2023, working closely with the CEO Giorgio Furlani, the RedBird Senior Advisor Zlatan Ibrahimovic and the coach of the Prima Squad. The French manager gave an interview to MilanNews.itwhere he spoke about his role, the working methodology used at Milan, the process that leads to buying a player and all the new areas that his role as DT touches. These are his statements on Reijnders:
The AZ director said that Reijnders is a strong player, everyone slept except Milan. How did you get there?
“There are aspects, sometimes, that make you doubt. It took Reijnders a long time to reach high levels. He didn’t play at AZ straight away – he was in the second team and went out on loan. So you wonder why AZ, who normally put those who are good on the pitch straight away, didn’t play? This was our doubt. But it was obviously in our database: we created videos, we analyzed the data, there were many reports where we always saw it clearly. It didn’t hurt or do any top-notch things. He always did well. But the last one at AZ played in the Conference League: I saw him against Lazio, I also went to see him against West Ham… And there I said to myself that this player can do everything, he runs a lot, he’s technically good. He’s always positive, always moving forward. I liked his profile, I thought we could bring him to Milan and then see how he would develop. In June we had a meeting with Stefano Pioli, at his home in Parma. He immediately told me that he needed a midfielder with quality, a playmaking number 8, a versatile profile. So I showed him Reijnders, Stefano immediately told me he liked it. From there we moved forward quickly in the negotiation.”
And this year he is also finding the goal…
“I think he can reach 10 goals easily. But he can also make assists, which are equally important. Everyone talks about goals, true, but finding the last pass is also important.”
What is the purchase that has given you the most satisfaction here at Milan? Maybe because of the negotiation which was particular…
“Tijji Reijnders. It was a guy who came out later. We followed him for many years in the AZ second team. I went to see the U20 World Cup in Argentina, I had already met his agent in Italy. We had talked about Reijnders and the negotiations started in Argentina, they didn’t start in Holland.”
Read TMW’s full interview with Moncada here!