MILAN (AP) - Real Madrid’s Champions League winning coach, Carlo Ancelotti, has backed former player Filippo Inzaghi as the ideal candidate to take over as manager of AC Milan.
Current Milan coach Clarence Seedorf is only four months into a 2 ½ year contract, but Italian media reports claim that club owner Silvio Berlusconi has already decided to replace him with the Dutchman’s former teammate, Inzaghi.
“Inzaghi has extraordinary enthusiasm, he has already got experience in the youth sector,” former Milan manager Ancelotti told Italian media in Rome on Tuesday. “He certainly has all the characteristics, he knows the club and if he becomes Milan coach, I wish him all the best.”
Like Seedorf, Inzaghi has no previous first-team coaching experience, but he has been in charge of the youth team at Milan since retiring in 2012 and has achieved impressive results.
The 40-year-old has long been seen as a future coach.
“Whoever starts doesn’t have experience,” said Ancelotti, speaking in the wake of Madrid’s Champions League triumph in Lisbon. “You get it with time. What’s most important is the knowledge of the game.”
Seedorf replaced the sacked Massimiliano Allegri in January and led Milan to an eighth-place finish in Serie A, with 11 wins in his 19 league matches in charge.
Despite an impressive first leg performance against Atletico Madrid in the Champions League last-16, Milan went out to the eventual runners-up 5-1 on aggregate.
Inzaghi had a glittering 11-year spell at Milan, winning two Serie A titles - to add to the one he won at Juventus - and two Champions League trophies.
The former striker also won the World Cup with Italy in 2006.
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