Brera Milan in Macedonian Serie A with Goran Pandev- Corriere.it

For a team that has had Spider-Man (not Marvel: Walter Zenga) as its coach, nothing is impossible or almost. And so a Second Category team from Milan – the eighth series of Italian football – turns professional. Also in Macedonia.

It’s about the Brera, a team from the city district born in 2000, which plays its matches in the prestigious Arena Garibaldi (it was, until the post-war period, Inter’s stadium) right in the centre. The neroverdi, who are obviously very far from the Italian football that matters, have started a new adventure. President Alessandro Aleotti’s men went to look for a Milanese by adoption like Goran Pandev, who announced his retirement last September at the age of 39, and they proposed him to join the association.

To do that, they went in Strumica, the Latin Tiberius, in North Macedoniaand they talked to the f

udbalski Klub Akademija Pandevwhat was supposed to be a normal football school but which since 2014, in just three years, landed in the Prva Liga, the first series. And that in 2019 he won the national cup, gaining access to the playoffs of the Europa League and last season to the Conference. And the Brera has received an enthusiastic response.

I immediately said yes. A project that is fascinating for two reasons: first, because Milan is the city that welcomed me as a child, it seems to me that I am giving something back,” Pandev explained to the Gazzetta dello Sport in the past few weeks — . Second, because the Brera it will help me in my dream: to win the Macedonian championship and reach the group stage of the Europa League.

Pandev actually already since November had linked himself to a brand new reality, thereto Brera Holdings (also listed on the New York Stock Exchange), together with the president Aleotti, the Milanese entrepreneur Adrio De Carolis and Sergio Scalpelli, former external relations director of Fastweb. Also in the group is Chris Gardner, the author of the bestseller The pursuit of happiness which was later transformed into the famous film by Gabriele Muccino with Will Smith.

Among the objectives of Brera Holdings? Export brand of Brera Football precisely in Macedonia, and also abroad (another stage the Mozambique). Also exporting what the battle of the neroverde team: have a very high social impact, to bring football where there are fragilities and criticalities (the team in Milan collaborates with the Opera prison, with the first reception centres, with the Roma communities and in the suburbs). The goal therefore s to export the neroverde and the Brera name to the world, but also replicate the model of help and education.

With Aleotti who, thinking back to the field, promises: Brera will play its derby with Milan and Inter when it comes to Milan to play a Champions League match.