Gerry Cardinale has revealed that former Milan scout Tiago Estêvão has returned to the club.
Today Ruben Amorim’s first press conference as head coach of Milan was held. Alongside him was Gerry Cardinale, who provided some insight into Milan’s new sporting direction.
Firstly, Cardinale confirmed what has been reported about the club’s new managerial structure, with Amorim having a central role, but also being backed by a decentralized sporting organization. In reference to this new organization, Cardinale named the likes of Hendrik Almstadt, Bobby Gardiner, Jovan Kirovski, Vincenzo Vergine and Donato Lomonte, but also a name who previously hasn’t been reported on: Tiago Estêvão.
Who is Tiago Estêvão?
Following Milan’s scudetto win in 2022, James Horncastle of The Athletic covered the rebuild that had led the club to this triumph. The way he tells it, an essential factor behind Milan’s success had been the development of the data analysis department, which was set up by the aforementioned Hendrik Almstadt. Almstadt had recruited several prominent young figures in the online football analytics sphere, one of which was Bobby Gardiner, and another one of which was Tiago Estêvão.
Estêvão would arrive at Milan in 2019, at the age of just 22. He would remain at the club until last year, when he took over as head of recruitment at Famalicão in his native Portugal. Famalicão would enjoy a historic fifth-place finish in the Primeira Liga in Estêvão’s first season at the club. In fact, Estêvão would also gain a promotion to the role of technical director in February.
Nonetheless, Estêvão appears to have left Famalicão upon receiving an opportunity to return to Milan. Per the now-28-year-old’s own LinkedIn, Estêvão is now back at Milan in the role as head of recruitment, further indicating an increasingly data-centric approach for the club.
