MILAN - Holland host Italy in a friendly on Wednesday evening and Van Persie has declared that he has always been an admirer of Mario Balotelli."I have always been a fan of Mario Balotelli. He is fast, strong and has courage. He has all the qualities a triker needs to do well at the highest level. Mario is also a good kid, I spoke to him a few times when he was at Manchester City. There are those who seem nice on the surface only to prove you wrong. Mario is the complete opposite to that. He might not seem like a nice guy but I think he is."

MILAN - The Milan glories landed in Indonesia, ready to play their charity match on Feb 9th against the Indonesian All Stars, and were welcomed by a sea of fans. Click here to see the photo and go to AC Milan's Twitter page.

MILAN - 21 players have been called up by coach Aldo Dolcetti for the match against Cesena, the rescheduled match from round 14 of the Primavera Group B.Goalkeepers: Narduzzo, Andrenacci.Defenders: Lora, Rondanini, Speranza, Pinato, Tamas, Pacifico, Ferretti.Midfielders: Medhoun, Piccinocchi, Bastone, Bortoli, Aniekan, Bendé Bendé.Forwards: Claveria, De Feo, Ganz, Henty, Petagna, Spagnoli.

MILAN - Youth team star Ezekiel Henty has set his sight on one day playing alongside Mario Balotelli in the first team. 
The young striker scored an amazing solo effort against Varese at the weekend where he ran almost the full length of the pitch and he said: "When I got the ball my only thought was to run towards the goal and score. Weah was a great player and when he scored a goal like this against Verona he won the Golden Ball. I have not been 100% but I have to thank the Milan Academy who have helped me develop. When I was in Nigeria I never thought I would play for Milan and I have to thank Michele Dal Cin for bringing me here. It would wonderful to play alongside Balotelli, he is a brilliant player and my objective is to play in the first team." 

MILAN - Mario Balotelli became the second Milan player in the Silvio Berlusconi era to score two goals on his debut. Olivier Bierhoff achieved the same feat in the 3-0 win over Udinese on September 12th, 1998.
A curious fact is that both players scored in the same way: the first in front of the Curva Sud and the second at the other a penalty at the opposite end of the San Siro.

MILAN - There will be four Milan on from the start for Italy against Holland at the Amsterdam ArenA on Wednesday. Apart from Mario Balotelli there will also be Ignazio Abate, Riccardo Montolivo and Stephan El Shaarawy who has been speaking at the press conference on the eve of the friendly. 
Talking about Milan the striker said: "I am delighted to be able to play in attack on the left, coach Allegri decided early in the season that my style fitted that position."
He then added: "I ​​hope to become a major player alongside Mario. We are doing well, but we should not get too carried away because it can all change in a moment in football. Who scores does not matter whether it is me or Balotelli, I can say that I am really happy to play alongside him. Italy must invest in young players, I think there are interesting ones, in both A and B. It is also important that two players like me and Mario, we have foreign origins, have integrated so well, both on and off the field. My dream is to win the World Cup and do better, at Milan winning and climbling the table counts."

STEPHAN EL SHAARAWY is thrilled to play alongside Balotelli and hopes to win the World Cup with him. Milan soldRead the Rest…

MILAN - Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has named Abate, Montolivo, El Shaarawy and Balotelli in his starting line-up to face Holland in Amsterdam on Wednesday.
The full team reads: Buffon; Abate, Barzagli, Astori, Santon; De Rossi, Pirlo, Montolivo; Candreva, Balotelli, El Shaarawy.

 
MILAN - The Milan Glory team made up of former Rossoneri legends have left for Indonesia. The team will play a charity match on February 9th against a local legends side organised by Milan Foundation and the Partamina Foundation with the proceeds going to a local charity.
The full squad: Goalkeepers: Taibi.
Defenders: P. Maldini, F. Baresi, Roque Junior, Costacurta, Nava, Vierchowod, Mussi.
Midfielders: Oddo, Eranio, Ba, Zambrotta, Carbone, Serginho.
Strikers: Ganz, Shevchenko, Massaro.
 

MILAN - Italy coach Cesare Prandelli has been talking about the importance of Stephan El Shaarawy. He said: "I have never seen a support striker like him. He is cool in front of goal and comes back to help out the midfield which you do not see that much in the modern game. He is a modern attacker."

MILAN - Stephan El Shaarawy has hailed the arrival of Mario Balotelli at the club and revealed that he has build up an immediate understanding with his striker partner.
The pair are currently with Italy squad preparing for the friendly against Holland and El Shaarawy said: "I am pleased that Mario has joined Milan and he has come here to win. We have a good understanding on and off the pitch. It was not matter who scores as long as Milan climb up the table. It is my dream to win the World Cup." 

MILAN - Former Milan captain Cesare Maldini turns 81 today to it is Happy Birthday to the Rossoneri legend.

MILAN - Yet another milestone in the field of social networks for AC Milan, with one million followers on Tencent, a leading Chinese social media.
The Rossonero "weibo" (how you define the "account" on Tencent)  - online from April 2012 - provides daily news on the club, trivia, behind-the-scenes photos, exclusive videos, polls and real-time updates of all the games of the season.
To celebrate the first million users on Weibo Milan, all the Chinese fans are encouraged to publish in a blog post what their passion for Milan means, in 140 characters to tell what they love most about the club. The most beautiful contributions are shared on the official account and the best one will win an exclusive prize (in just five days since the launch of the project more than 1,000 contributions have been published).
Milan is the number one Italian club in terms of number of followers on Tencent and falls in the top five amongst the major European clubs.
The Tencent page strengthens and enhances the strategies pursued by the club in the field of social networks. Milan has an official account on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Google + and Flickr.
All these channels have collected huge success on a global scale, collecting millions of fans from around the world (with nearly 14 million fans on facebook.com / acmilan, making Milan one of the most popular sports-themed accounts on the international scene).
Milan is also present in the Chinese digital market with a version for both the corporate website www.acmilan.com as well as e-commerce and an official account on Sina.com.

MILAN - Mario Balotelli has been grabbing the headlines all over the world and no more so than in China following his two goals in his debut against Udinese.
SuperMario’s photo has been splashed across all the major dailies in the country following his exposure in the press through Europe, South America and beyond.
Here are some of the headlines from around the world:
The Sun - Why always MElan
Sport Bild – Balo scores twice
Mundo Deportivo - Milan-Balotelli, love at first sight
El Clarin – Dream debut
L’Equipe - Balo is back, it is official
Terra Brasil – Two goals on Milan debut

MILAN - Stephan El Shaarawy will be the face of the Viareggio Cup which takes place from February 11th to the 25th.

MILAN - The Milan Glory team made up of former Rossoneri legends have left for Indonesia. The team will play a charity match against a local legends side organised by Milan Foundation and the Partamina Foundation with the proceeds going to a local charity. Click here for the photo of the team departing

MILANELLO - The squad returned to training immediately after the victory over Udinese on Sunday evening with a morning session that started at 11.30am.All the players started in the gym for personalised work out while on the central pitch both Abbiati and Patkovic were working on specific exercises with high balls.After the first session in the gym De Sciglio, Antonini, Bojan, Zaccardo, Robinho, Ambrosini, Muntari and Traoré moved out onto the central pitch at the sports complex for some aerobic exercises followed by some exercises intended to improve control of the ball while running.Following that session the squad was slipt into three groups with Bojan-Zaccardo and De Sciglio-Antonini on the flanks, in the middle Robinho, Traoré, Ambrosini and Muntari for some running, crosses and shooting practice. The training session finished with a match, five against five with goalkeepers with Ambrosini, Bojan, De Sciglio, Traoré on one side and Zaccardo, Robinho, Muntari and Antonini on the other.

MILAN - On the day that the Azzurri met for training ahead of the friendly match against Holland on Wednesday evening, Cesare Prandelli spoke about the Milan players in his squad. "I am very happy that Mario Balotelli is back in Italy, I am happy for him because I see he is more motivated and happy. And in Milan we can keep a better eye on him, both on and off the pitch. Our job as coaches is to find the right chemistry and partners but we have little time to do so so it is great that Balotelli and El Shaarawy already play together for their club."