Marcelino Garcia Toral, who recently won the Spanish Super Cup with Athletic Bilbao, reveals talks with AC Milan in 2019.
Marcelino Garcia Toral today guides Athletic Bilbao but in the past he had the opportunity to coach in Serie A. First Inter and then AC Milan sought the Spaniard to entrust him their squads. In December he had contacts with Fiorentina but nothing materialized.
The 55-year-old coach preferred to remain in Spain taking charge of Athletic Bilbao in January. The Basque team is currently tenth in the La Liga standings and not very far from the Europa League zone. Bilbao have suffered only 3 defeats since Marcelino’s arrival and also won the Spanish Super Cup by defeating Barcelona.
Interviewed by Sky Sport, Marcelino explained that in November 2016 Inter had contacted him to replace the sacked Frank de Boer. “There was this possibility and after the second meeting I thought I had great chances. But the next morning everything changed, Inter chose Pioli perhaps preferring him because he is Italian after their experience with de Boer“.
About the proposal of AC Milan in October 2019, Marcelino says: “Also in this case there was a good opportunity but I was not mentally ready to take on such a feat. It was certainly an attractive experience but out of honesty to the club and the fans I preferred not to join the Milan project“.
The Spanish coach refused to take over after AC Milan had sacked Marco Giampaolo. Later the job went to Stefano Pioli who proved a great choice. For the future, Marcelino does not reject the possibility of coaching in Serie A: “I don’t speak Italian much but I hope in the future an experience in Italy so I will learn the language“.
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