Speaking at the Festival dello Sport in Trento, Boban questioned the idea that Champions League qualification should be enough for Milan.
“We have adapted to not having ambition. Then this is not Milan. If Milan’s ambition is only to go to the Champions League, then we have understood nothing. Nothing makes sense anymore.”
The former Milan midfielder also compared the club’s mentality with its Serie A rivals, suggesting that Napoli currently show a greater determination to win.
“Almost Napoli perhaps have greater awareness and ambition to win, or to have to win, than us. If I suffer seeing Milan reduced like this? With all due respect, and I love Napoli deeply, but Milan is Milan.”
Boban’s criticism was rooted in what he believes the club should represent. For him, competing at the top is not enough if the ultimate objective is not to win.
His comments came alongside a discussion of one of the defining achievements of his AC Milan career, the 1994 Champions League final against Barcelona in Athens.
“For that match we changed the way we played, perhaps nobody noticed. Capello prepared the match individually and said: ‘If you are real men, today you show it’. For me and Milan, that 18 May 1994, the final against Barcelona, has remained in Champions League history.”
Boban also credited Fabio Capello with changing him as a player and teaching him the collective demands of the game.
“Because he understood us, and he understood much more than us. I always appreciated his clarity, he was transparent. He was the one who formed me as a footballer: in Croatia, in the former Yugoslavia, I played as a number 10, but in six seasons I did not recover a single ball. With Capello I learned what it really means to play for the team.”
The contrast with modern football was also clear in Boban’s recollection of his own decision to join Milan. He said he had offers from Barcelona, Real Madrid and Marseille, including one that would have doubled his salary, but chose Milan because of what the club represented.
His message was that Milan’s stature should demand more than participation. In Boban’s view, ambition has to mean competing to win.