2023-10-25 17:00:02
Mike Maignan, during the Champions League match between Borussia Dortmund and AC Milan at Signal Iduna Park, Germany, October 4, 2023. MARTIN MEISSNER / AP
On one side there is “Magic Mike”, on the other “Dollarumma”. On the one hand, Mike Maignan, the French goalkeeper of AC Milan, will meet his training club, Paris Saint-Germain (PSG), in the Champions League on Wednesday October 25 at the Parc des Princes. On the other, Gianluigi Donnarumma, the Italian goalkeeper of PSG, former star of the Rossoneri, now hated by Milanese fans.
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In this match, important with a view to qualifying for the round of 16 of the European Cup – which PSG wants to win to forget the rout at Newcastle (1-4) – the goalkeepers will compete in a duel from a distance which will not will not leave the supporters indifferent. Because their careers in their respective training clubs also tell the recent history of PSG and Milan.
Although he has never played a single match with the capital club, where he was trained from 2009 to 2015, Mike Maignan knows the Parc des Princes well. The goalkeeper of the France team is playing his eighth match against Paris on Wednesday. “It’s always special to play against PSG again”he explained, on October 16, on the eve of the friendly match won by the Blues against Scotland (4-1).
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However, Mike Maignan did not make an impression there. Like other young people from the training center – Alphonse Areola, Kingsley Coman, Christopher Nkunku – competition pushed him to leave, and he joined the Lille Olympique Sporting Club (LOSC) in 2015. “There was no promise or strategy to have Maignan number 1 at PSG”, remembers Anthony Costard, the player’s ex-agent. Barred from the capital club, Mike Maignan prioritized “his sporting development required a departure”.
Maignan, a true “Parisian Titi”
“Magic Mike” doesn’t hold it against Paris. “When he left, he had no ill will towards the club. He simply had the ambition and the desire to prove in another setting”, assures his former representative. This missed opportunity at PSG did not affect him, maintains the LOSC coach at the time, Hervé Renard – now coach of the French women’s team. “His future was all mapped out. He was a hard worker, ambitious and intelligent. »
It is therefore far from the capital that Maignan flourishes. He won Ligue 1 in 2021 with Lille, then Serie A with AC Milan the following year. The goalkeeper, who grew up with Presnel Kimpembe at the training center, maintains strong links with Paris. “He’s a pure product of PSG, a real Titi, a lover of the club”, insists Anthony Costard. In the stands of the Parc des Princes will be the family and friends of the goalkeeper from Villiers-le-Bel (Val-d’Oise), in the Paris region.
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