Milan return to the Mapei Stadium on Sunday at 18:00, revisiting the ground where their last Scudetto was secured on 22 May 2022. The setting is familiar, but almost everything around the club has changed. Mike Maignan is the sole regular survivor from the starting side that won the title in Reggio Emilia, and he now carries the captaincy.
That afternoon against Sassuolo, Stefano Pioli’s Milan wore their white strip and began with Maignan; Davide Calabria, Pierre Kalulu, Fikayo Tomori, Theo Hernandez; Sandro Tonali, Franck Kessie; Alexis Saelemaekers, Rade Krunic, Rafael Leao; and Olivier Giroud. Ismael Bennacer, Brahim Diaz, Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Alessio Romagnoli and Alessandro Florenzi came on.
None of those 15 other players remains an active Milan player. Saelemaekers would have been one exception in another set of circumstances, but his injury will keep him out for around four months. Tomori is still at the club, yet he has been on the bench after not playing since last season and was placed among the players available for departure during the summer.
A title team scattered in four years
The current squad reflects how quickly Milan’s championship-winning group has disappeared. Ibrahimovic now works as an adviser to RedBird, while the rest have either been sold or allowed to leave.
Some exits followed a natural course. Giroud chose Los Angeles as the next stage of his life and career, while Brahim Diaz returned to Real Madrid once his spell in Italy ended. Milan had little control over either situation.
Other departures left deeper marks. Tonali was sold despite strong opposition from supporters. Leao’s relationship with the fanbase broke down, while Kessie left when his contract expired. Calabria became an unusual case: a Milan captain allowed to reach the end of his deal without the club coming close to an extension.
The contrast with Inter on the same title-deciding day remains striking. In their match against Sampdoria, Inter had Alessandro Bastoni, Nicolo Barella, Hakan Calhanoglu, Lautaro Martinez and Federico Dimarco in their side. Five prominent figures from that afternoon remain part of the Nerazzurri picture, compared with only Maignan at Milan, or two if Saelemaekers is included despite his absence.
Changes above the dressing room
The turnover cannot be separated entirely from the modern transfer market, where clubs often need sales to protect their accounts and representatives push moves that create commissions. Yet Milan’s own decisions have also accelerated the break from the recent past.
Across four years, the club has passed through at least three distinct leadership phases. The Paolo Maldini and Frederic Massara period ended, followed by the Giorgio Furlani and Geoffrey Moncada era. That gave way first to Igli Tare and then to the dismissals made under Gerry Cardinale on 25 May 2025.
Each transition brought a willingness to move on from previous choices. Maldini and Massara would not have sold Tonali or Charles De Ketelaere. Tare, meanwhile, would have given Christopher Nkunku another opportunity and would not have sent Athekame to Lyon.
Sunday therefore offers more than a return to a happy Milan ground. It is a reminder of how quickly a title-winning team can be dismantled when the sporting project, ownership direction and boardroom priorities keep changing. Maignan remains from that day in 2022; the next question is how many of today’s Milan players — including Moreira, Christian Pulisic, Davide Bartesaghi and Goncalo Ramos — will still be there four years from now.
