Milan coach Stefano Pioli is ‘convinced’ Zlatan Ibrahimovic should stay at San Siro and thinks Gianluigi Donnarumma is ‘among the four best goalkeepers in the world’.
The 54-year-old coach was confirmed until June 2022 after a successful second half of the 2019-20 campaign.
Looking back at the season, Pioli was proud of the results in 2020 and said there was an obvious change at Milanello when Zlatan arrived in January.
Milan coach Stefano Pioli is ‘convinced’ Zlatan Ibrahimovic should stay at San Siro and thinks Gianluigi Donnarumma is ‘among the four best goalkeepers in the world’.
The 54-year-old coach was confirmed until June 2022 after a successful second half of the 2019-20 campaign.
Looking back at the season, Pioli was proud of the results in 2020 and said there was an obvious change at Milanello when Zlatan arrived in January.
“In 2020, only Atalanta picked up more points. We only lost the derby, after a great first half,” Pioli told La Repubblica.
“Not everything goes smoothly in a season. But he makes everything easy.
“It’s wrong to refer to his age, he’s 100 per cent professional. He taught the young players about seriousness, competitiveness in every single training session.
“He’s the first to arrive and the last to leave. These are vey strong signals. Zlatan has great respect for the roles. He has raised the competitiveness.
“He gets furious about a poor pass in the torello.”
The 38-year-old is in talks with Milan about his own future at San Siro and Pioli wants him to stay for 2020-21.
“We are all convinced he should continue with us.”
Goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, capped 16 times by Italy, has played 203 times for Milan already at 21 and Pioli praised the youngster.
“At 21, he has already gained experience. In recent games he was even our captain,” Pioli said. “He’s among the three or four best goalkeepers in the world.”