Until recently, the rule at AC Milan was that whoever had the most appearances for the club would be the captain for any given game, but Paulo Fonseca has changed things in his own way.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport recall, there was some surprise when Fonseca gave the armband to Rafael Leao for the Lecce game but he explained it as follows: “In my head there is a ‘rotation leadership’, I don’t want just one captain.”
On the eve of the Bayer Leverkusen match he reiterated this concept: “When I arrived here, the captain was chosen from the players who had played the most games for the club.
“I respect this principle, but I want a shared, extended ‘leadership’. We want to share this responsibility with more players. At the moment there are five who can be captains, but it’s a number I would like to see increase.”
The intent is clear: to make everyone feel part of the project, to further empower the highest number of players. Who are the five men Fonseca is talking about though, and who could join the club?
Davide Calabria: It goes without saying that Calabria is the official club captain. He is a product of the youth system, he took the captaincy from Alessio Romagnoli and has the most appearances, but at present he is out of favour and struggling with injuries, so the armband is currently elsewhere.
Theo Hernandez: The left-back been the vice-captain for a while now but even in this case it is appearance-based. Theo was given the armband because he has been at Milanello for over five years and is one of the leaders. Nonetheless, he still alternates magnificent games with more difficult one, something the fans want to end.
Rafael Leao: The latest to be bestowed the honour was Leao, and Fonseca hopes it will accelerate his maturation. After all, in recent months the player himself had assured that he felt ready to be a leader.
In terms of seniority, Leao is at the same level as Hernandez, but compared to his team-mate he is going through a much more complex journey. As captain he has that responsibility he craves, and it might be a message from the coach to avoid responding to criticism from fans and the media so publicly.
Fikayo Tomori: He too, one of the possible candidates. Tomori was the captain in Rome against Lazio (Calabria, Theo and Leao were not in the starting eleven) because he is a leader of the defence, he talks a lot with his team-mates, he orders the whole department and he keeps calm.
Of course, the Englishman is still not at the consistently high levels of the Scudetto season, but simply performance levels are not the first parameter that a coach uses to make this type of choice. What counts, for example, is the importance in the dressing room, which Tomori has.
