Jo Squillo berates Leao, extols Modric and calls out Lewandowski

Jo Squillo, a huge Milan fan, in an exclusive interview granted to Sportal.it on the occasion of the event “Tennis and the Summer of Sky Sport,” held Monday, May 4 at the Foro Italico in Rome, spoke about her experience in Beijing Express, before dwelling on the situation of the Rossoneri team in a complicated year with an expertise to make many of the so-called experts envious.

“I had a lot of fun. It is a touching experience of reality TV, real, authentic,” he began. “In reality you see little, but we suffer a lot. And we also have a lot of fun. It’s all very extreme, that’s the word. Extreme.”

“What is happening at Milan? I have been a milanista since I was 8 years old and my grandfather used to take me down that staircase of San Siro to the populars, as a real fan precisely. Then over the years I went further and further down until I got on the field, when we won one of the first scudetti of the Berlusconi era I also sang on the field and it was a great pride.”

“We suffer, we suffer as always. Milan never makes us miss the emotions of the ups and downs, the merry-go-round. This is a very dark period. I by the way also met Leao, who I liked very much, because he is a guy who you can see that he likes to win, to play, above all, and to have fun with the ball. For me that idea is healthy. But then over the span of the Milan experience, the boys have to grow. And I have found that Leao, I have to tell the truth, has grown little from this point of view, maybe just as a boy and as a man, mentally, because in addition to the passion for the game, there are also, however, responsibilities to take on for an entire team.”

“I think that this dangling of his, at times, in the field, gives us a little bit of a nuisance, a little bit of a bore. It’s also an attitude of his, though, in the sense that maybe he surprises himself, he’s imaginative, he wants the beautiful ball, the cleat, the neat thing, finished well. And instead, the game of soccer is not just that, it is also just rolling up your sleeves and working in humility for the team.”

“Humility that instead the extraordinary Modric has shown us. It’s a pleasure to see him from a human point of view, even before as a player, because he has really steered the team, he has given it rules, he has given it that sense of beautiful play, but also the technique that you have to have at these levels. And he has it in industrial quantities.”

“Inter won the championship but we beat them, let’s remember that. When we know how to play we do it well and we are superior, from the Sacchi era to today. However, it’s true that there are too many gaps in the players, also perhaps because of a fairly uncertain buying campaign, there are some scraps that could have stayed at home and without spending all that money…”.

“Who would I rely on in attack? Lewandowski? Yes I as an oldie (other than an oldie, Jo is in splendid shape, ed.) would bet on the safe second hand all my life. After the Modric experience I would reevaluate that age group, let’s call them oldies who then are the new youngsters, who give that experience, that seriousness and above all they are not really old anymore: once at 40 you were old, now you are still young. I saw it in Beijing Express, me and Michelle (Masullo, Jo’s ‘elective daughter’) are from two completely different generations and I see how important it is to compensate for each other.”

“It’s also right that we really make a youth team that is up to the mark, that is, Milan’s youth nursery had always been cultivated with great care. Today, where is this Milan youth nursery? I ask where is it? It is no longer there. And so this is a big mistake, because probably the economic concept of buying and selling is stronger than instead sowing new players and new youth, but then Italy pays the consequences afterwards. So maybe let’s face it there is a need to review the whole Italian soccer. Anyway Lewandowski then? Yes, Lewandowski.”

Beijing Express 2026 airs from March 12 every Thursday at 9:15 p.m. exclusively on Sky Uno and streaming on NOW. The journey, which runs through Indonesia, China and Japan, is also available on demand on Sky. Thereafter, the episodes are broadcast free-to-air on TV8.