Serie A | Udinese – AC Milan | “We do not forget”: between Udine and Mike Maignan, reunion under close surveillance

Mike Maignan is not really the genre to flee his responsibilities. January 20, 2024: The first time, the French goalkeeper of AC Milan heads towards Fabio Maresca, the referee of the match against the Udinese. He then means to be the target of racist insults from the North Curva, where the ultras of the Frioul club are located. The Bluenergy Stadium's speaker then warns all the spectators present that evening: the meeting will be suspended if such acts came to be reiterated.

But as the insults continued, the former LOSC porter then left the field in the 34th minute, imitated by his teammates, forcing the referee to interrupt the meeting. The match had resumed after ten minutes of interruption and Maignan had resumed his place in his goals and finished the match won by AC Milan (3-2).

“After a first warning, I heard an imitation of monkey, then they did it again, so I called my staff saying that we could not play like that. They are ignorant people, not all supporters, because real fans come to encourage their team and sometimes whistle opponents, but these things should not happen“, He deplored in the wake at the microphone of Sky Sport. Not always talkative before the microphones, Maignan had been convinced by Zlatan Ibrahimovic, his manager, to go and tell the facts that occurred. The next day, he urged the authorities of Italian football and the justice to take their responsibilities:”If you do nothing, you will also be accomplices“He wrote on his social networks.

The Udinese, initially punished with a closed -door match, had seen its sanction lightened on appeal. She finally saw herself forced to play two games at home with one of the stands of her stadium, the Curva Nord. Quickly identified, five of the authors of these racist insults were then banished for life by the udinese of his stadium. The club had justified its call against the initial sanction of a closed -door match by its will to “Protect (its) reputation as a club, which is historically multiethnic, and the efforts we have made to pursue the authors of these acts“Even politics got involved.

Finally, the municipal council of Udine had renounced by vote a qualified majority to award this title of honorary citizen of the city to the French goalkeeper. More than a year after this sad episode, no one has forgotten. Neither Mike Maignan, who is about to find this stadium on Friday evening at the opening of the 32nd day of Serie A. Nor the famous Curva Nord, who obviously did not appreciate the attitude of the Milanese that evening. This week, a banner against the tricolor porter was even seen around Bluenergy Stadium. He was inscribed: “Maignan man of M *****”. Before being removed soon after.

“FRIOUL, UDINE and NORTH CURVA are not racistrepeated the northern curva in a statement released this week. We will demonstrate it. Our disagreement with Maignan (the people of Frioul do not forget) must be done in a civil way without falling into discriminatory attitudes. Let's go beyond the more or less piloted media echoes, make us hear with a correction that has always been recognized.“In short: Maignan should be welcomed under the whistles on Friday. His fault? According to the Udinese ultras, the Frenchman has encompassed the whole” North Curva “in his accusations. While it would be, according to them, isolated cases.

“I would like to emphasize that our city has always been a land of welcome, 14% of our residents are not Italian. For example, there are people of Romanian, Ukrainian, Ghanaian origins … Schools have a rate of 20% of students with foreign origins. Udine is a solidarity city synonymous with inclusion. It was a time symbol of emigration and then, for a few years, immigration. This episode strongly injured the whole city“, told us in this sense the mayor of Udine.

Asked Thursday at a press conference on the state of mind of his goalkeeper, Sergio Conceiçao was not worried. “”He must focus on the matchwarned the Milanese technician. We are not worried, either Mike either. If things should happen again, the competent authorities will be able to resolve them. “It would be a question of not yet getting there.