Molina: Maldini, Mendes, Zlatan and Scheiner – the doubts about RedBird’s Milan
Romain Molina has published the explosive video that he promised which takes aim at Gerry Cardinale’s RedBird Capital fund.
Molina has conducted in-depth investigations for The Guardian, The New York Times and the BBC in the past. He has shared a 25-minute video on his YouTube channel explaining the system behind the sports investments of RedBird Capital Partners.
RedBird of course are Cardinale’s investment fund founded in 2014, which has owned Milan since 2022. MilanNews have identified the key points of the investigation, which concern the Rossoneri above all.
Cardinale and Scheiner
The first point of interest concerns the relationship between Gerry Cardinale and Alec Scheiner. He is a former NFL executive who served as the Milan owner’s right-hand man for a long time in the fund’s sports investments, also leading the controversial Toulouse project starting in 2020.
In 2022, Cardinale bought Milan – then Italian champions – for €1.2bn and even clashed with Scheiner, who considered it a disproportionate investment, especially considering the massive vendor loan granted by Elliott Management.
After a year, the (almost) definitive split occurred with Scheiner, who was pushing to place his own men on the Rossoneri club’s board. In the summer of 2023 – the same summer as the irreparable rift with Paolo Maldini – Scheiner and Cardinale also parted ways.
It was a half-farewell, according to Molina, because Scheiner established a new fund (Otro Capital) financed with €200m directly from the pockets of RedBird/Cardinale. This latest financial experience has generated more shadows than lights for Molina.
Maldini and Zlatan
Two central figures in RedBird’s experience with Milan, for profoundly different reasons, are Paolo Maldini and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Molina reconstructs the rift between Cardinale and the former Milan captain and director.
The origin of the conflict was dictated by the fact that Cardinale wanted to insert men from the world of finance into sports management (an example is Billy Beane, Mr. Moneyball). Maldini always insisted he didn’t want men from the world of finance making sporting decisions, and thus he departed.
On the other hand, Molina emphasizes that Ibrahimovic’s position within RedBird is practically untouchable. To obtain the role of Senior Advisor, the former Swedish footballer invested money in the fund and this acts as a guarantee to keep him in his position, even if his role has not yet been clearly defined.
Jorge Mendes’ influence
Concluding his investigation, Romain Molina also discusses Jorge Mendes. The journalist cites how the Portuguese super-agent played – in his opinion – a key role in Milan’s most recent summer.
He brought Ruben Amorim (who is not assisted by Mendes but by AS1 Sports), he led the negotiations for Ramos and Moreira for €75m and €60m. Molina in the video implies that Ramos’ valuation was higher than the actual market price.
He also helped with Rafael Leao’s exit from Milan, even if the transfer was handled by lawyer Antonio Leo and FIFA agent George Gardi formally. These are the transactions Molina cites and he does so to shine some doubt on Cardinale’s strategy, which he believes is typical of the big sharks of Wall Street finance.
In the eyes of the journalist, these big managers who dominate their sector find themselves like small fish in the ocean when they dive into the European football industry. It is for this reason – continues Molina – that Cardinale relies on personalities like Mendes.
