Milan, who is Billy Beane (Mr Moneyball) and why he inspired Cardinale

What does baseball have to do with the new Milan and who is Billy Beane? The story of Mr Moneyball. Here’s how the Rossoneri ecosystem changes after the farewell of Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara.

Maldini and Massara will not be replaced. More than a revolution of roles, the new Milan will completely change its method. The club managed by the double figure of the technical and sports director will give way to a new model. “Moneyball” they call it in the States: it is based first of all on data and algorithms.

Read also: Milan, Maldini out: the team is shocked. Pioli (for now) remains

The Geoffrey Moncada figure is headed for an upgrade. The French manager’s adventure with the Rossoneri began with the arrival of Elliott fund on the bridge. Today Moncada is in charge of AC Milan scouting, Tomori and Kalulu are products of his work and of the team he manages. In Gerry Cardinale’s plans, however, he will be much more: the first inspirer of the strategies linked to the market objectives to be pursued. In other words, the former Monaco player and his network of ten observers will identify and signal the profiles of players “from Milan” to be monitored in Europe and around the world.

What does baseball have to do with the new Milan

Moncada will be joined by Giorgio Furlani, the new managing director of the Rossoneri since November. Elliott’s former Portfolio Manager will now have even more power in the club’s decision-making choices. However, the new operational team will rely on a particular approach system. In the baseball world it has been known for decades by the term “Moneyball”. At the basis of everything is sabermetrics, i.e. the statistical analysis of the players during matches. RedBird has already adopted the new method in Toulouse, in Ligue 1, with positive results (certainly not exciting to tell the truth): data and algorithms are the basis of the French club’s European climb, this year in the Europa League. The “Moneyball” phenomenon originated in the early seventies, but became famous – and above all recognized as effective – in the early 2000s thanks to the Oakland Athletics baseball team.

Milan, who is Billy Beane (Mr Moneyball) and how he inspired Cardinale

Mr Moneyball, il film con Brad Pitt

Early 2000s. The Oakland general manager wanted to rely on a model that no one, before then, had had the courage to follow. The results were immediately incredible, so much so that in 2011 the Oakland Athletics masterpiece also became a film. Main protagonist and co-producer “a certain” Brad Bitt, in the Billy Beane storyline. Candidate in six categories of the Academy Awards, it was released in Italian cinemas in January 2012 with the title “The art of winning”.

The story of Billy Beane and the method that Cardinale wants to bring to Milan

But who is Billy Beane, Mr Moneyball? Born March 29, 1962 in Orlando, Beane is a sports executive and former baseball player. In 1990 he started scouting, then seven years later he was named GM of the Oakland Athletics. As an executive, he grew up under the wing of Sandy Alderson, former general manager of the New York Mets. Alderson saw the use of data as crucial in finding undervalued players. In 2015, Beane was promoted to executive vice president of the Oaklands. Today, in the same franchise registered in Major League Baseball, he also covers the role of minority partner. It was he who inspired Gerry Cardinale and encouraged him to invest in European football: «He was decisive in convincing me that it could be a great opportunity» said the American entrepreneur at the head of RedBird Capital Partners and a new tenant of Casa Milan for a year.

Beane and the resurgence of the Oakland Athletics

As GM, at the dawn of the new millennium, Beane hired Paul DePodesta as assistant and together they managed, through the results produced by sabermetric analyses, to win twenty consecutive games and thus revive the club’s finances, until then reduced to the bone. In 2003 Michael Lewis decided to dedicate a book, “Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game” to Beane’s success and “his” method, and eight years later the film with Brad Bitt was released in cinemas.

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