Donnarumma returns for the first time since leaving Milan in 2021
Gianluigi Donnarumma returns to the San Siro for the first time since his acrimonious departure from AC Milan in 2021.
Donnarumma came through the Rossoneri’s youth academy and featured over 250 times for his boyhood club, before leaving for Paris Saint-Germain.
The young Italian refused to sign a £130,000 per week deal with the club, running his contract down in the process before signing for PSG on a far more lucrative deal.
At the time it was considered a giant coup for the French side, who had signed one of the best young goalkeepers in the world but Milan fans soon turned their backs on him.
With the ‘keeper set to return to the club for the first time since departing on bad terms, Milan fans are reportedly planning to give him a hostile ‘welcome back’.
Sport Mediaset have reported that the Cruva Sud – Milan’s ultras group – will throw fake bank notes and the number 71 shirt when Donnarumma steps out onto the pitch.
Those shirts are a reference to the Neapolitan system of interpreting dreams into winning lottery numbers, known as Smorfia Napoletana, in which 71 means ‘man without values’.
PSG chairman Nasser Al-Khelaifi has urged those planning to protest to remember the good times the 24-year-old had at the club.
“Gigi is one of the best goalkeepers in the world. He’s still so young and such a great professional, he’s also a fantastic person,” he told Gazzetta dello Sport.
“What he contributed to AC Milan over 215 appearances was amazing – and I have huge respect for both AC Milan and Gigio.”
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