AC Milan midfielder Ismael Bennacer has spoken about Gianluigi Donnarumma’s exit and Zlatan Ibrahimovic’s potential return, as well as the rise of Francesco Camarda.
Bennacer is gearing up for his return to action and it could happen tonight under the lights at San Siro against Frosinone, given that he has been named in the squad and will therefore start on the bench.
The Algerian midfielder has been out for the last six months after undergoing surgery to repair cartilage in his knee after sustaining a serious injury during the first leg of the Champions League semi-final against Inter.
He has been training with the rest of the squad at Milanello for a few weeks now, building up his fitness levels, and the time has finally come to get him involved, though whether he plays some minutes off the bench remains to be seen.
Bennacer gave an interview to Goal.com in which he spoke about his past at Arsenal and various team-mates that he has played with, and his comments were relayed by PianetaMilan.
Would you be happy to see Ibrahimovic return?
“Of course I would be happy with his return, because Zlatan is truly a legend in the club, as a player. I would be very happy with his return with us because he has always helped the team, the club. I’m sure that if he comes back he will do his best to do his best. We are always in contact, he is more than an ex-teammate.”
What was Gianluigi Donnarumma’s exit like?
“Gigio knew what would happen, then it’s part of football. The world of football is like this: on the pitch you have to remove all this pressure due to the atmosphere. It’s not that the Milan fans don’t love Donnarumma, it’s that when you played for Milan and you won something it always hurts when you leave. Maybe there is something that we don’t know and that we will never know. Maybe it was a bit tough, but every player can experience these things.”
Francesco Camarda made his debut last week…
“I hope he becomes a great player. I only knew him by his name, now he always trains with us and from what I’ve seen he’s a real striker. He’s always looking for goal, trying to show his sense of goal. He has to do everything because there are a couple of players missing now, and there is Olivier Giroud who won’t play against Frosinone. He will have his chance and he must take it because there is no age: I think he will become a real striker and that he will score a lot of goals.”
Were you in a hurry to come back from injury or were you patient?
“Both things depended on the moment. I like to work: everyone says that I returned earlier, but in reality the recovery time from the injury was between 6 and 9 months and we are in the seventh , so we are on time. We wanted to make sure that the knee responded well on the field, then I lacked stamina and rhythm, which I still lack today, but I gained time by working a lot on the bike and similar systems.”
Tell us about your past at Arsenal…
“There are no regrets in my experience at Arsenal: when I make a decision, for me it’s the right one. At Arsenal I had two good years, I received a good education which was what I wanted, because at Arles , where I played and where I was born, I didn’t have it. At Arsenal, yes, then I wasn’t lucky enough to play with the first team: I wanted to leave even though I had 3 or 4 years left on my contract. It’s a choice that I took and that today I do not regret.”
The Champions League and the African Cup of Nations…
“This year will be tough because we don’t have our destiny in our hands, but we will do the best we can to win the last match, because we don’t know how it will go. Even if it was a tough group, we are Milan: maybe we did a little badly in one or two matches, but it’s football, now we believe in it for ourselves and for our fans. We will give everything in the last match.
“Can we win the African Cup of Nations? Of course. When you go into a competition like this, and then we’re also a good team, all the players have it in their heads to win it, otherwise it wouldn’t make sense. We’ve already won it: let’s go and we’ll do everything we can to repeat it.”
Bennacer is seriously deluding himself if he actually thinks the fans still loves Donnarumma as I would say quite the contrary. We shouldn’t forget that the fans at San Siro who jeered him also are just a drop in the water and that there are legions of fans who despise him so i doubt even 10% of the entire fan base would want him back in our team.