Gianluigi Donnarumma Was Driven Out of AC Milan by Mike Maignan

The summer of 2021 marked the transfer of Gianluigi Donnarumma to Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) as a free agent after the expiration of his contract with AC Milan.

Gianluigi Donnarumma is still feeling the repercussions of his departure from AC Milan. Over two years later, Milan supporters are still incensed about seeing their goalkeeper leave on a free transfer. Mino Raiola, the player agent who has since passed away, has now been succeeded by Vincenzo Donnarumma, his cousin, in managing the player’s interests.

“We joined Berlusconi and Galliani’s Milan. Mino had many doubts about Yonghong-Li’s Milan. However, we renewed Donnarumma’s contract despite the insistence of 4-5 bigger clubs offering him notably more money because Gianluigi didn’t want to leave the team that had nurtured him. Mino didn’t want to see Donnarumma leave for €0,” but Donnarumma wanted Milan to qualify for the Champions League.

“In Mino’s mind, there was the idea of reaching an agreement because Milan still hadn’t qualified for the Champions League, and the alternative, given that we didn’t want Donnarumma to leave for €0, was to move forward with another club, namely Juventus.”

According to Vincenzo Raiola, Donnarumma was simply ousted from Milan by Mike Maignan or, more accurately, by the Milan executives’ decision to give Maignan the starting position. “Maldini then told us: ‘Mino, we are here for something else. The Gianluigi chapter is already closed because we already have our goalkeeper’ [Mike Maignan],” says Vincenzo Raiola.

It was at this point that the Italian goalkeeper’s camp reached out to PSG. Nasser Al-Khelaïfi, PSG’s president, then asked the sporting director, Leonardo, to bring Donnarumma to Paris.