Serie A

A Nevada federal judge will hear arguments in the case regarding the rape allegation against Cristiano Ronaldo, according to Ken Ritter of the Associated Press. 

Kathryn Mayorga says Ronaldo raped her in a Las Vegas hotel suite in 2009 after meeting at a nightclub. The Juventus star says the two had consensual sex, but the two sides reached a confidentiality agreement in 2010 and Mayorga was paid $375,000.

Mayorga's attorney, Leslie Mark Stovall, argues she "was pressured by Ronaldo's representatives and lacked the legal capacity to sign a non-disclosure agreement," per Ritter.

"The court must decide whether Mayorga lacked the mental capacity to assent to the settlement agreement," U.S. District Judge Jennifer Dorsey wrote.

Mayorga filed the lawsuit against Ronaldo in 2018 after details of their agreement leaked to European publications. The 37-year-old is seeking at least $200,000 in damages for conspiracy, defamation, breach of contract, coercion and fraud.

With a judge agreeing to hear the case in public, details of the 2010 agreement could potentially be unsealed.

It's not currently known whether Ronaldo or Mayorga must attend the trial in person. No date for the proceedings has been set.

Juventus have gone into isolation after two staff members tested positive for COVID-19.

"This procedure will allow all members who tested negative to the controls to carry out regular training and match activities, but will not be allowed contact with outside the group," the club said in a statement Saturday. "The club is in constant contact with the competent health authorities."

The Italian champions said none of the infected individuals are players or members of the technical or medical staffs, and they added they expect to be able to play Sunday's scheduled game against Napoli.

However, Napoli are dealing with an outbreak of their own after midfielder Piotr Zielinski and a staff member tested positive for COVID-19 during testing this week, and Reuters (h/t ESPN) noted reports from Italy suggesting the team may be banned from travelling to Turin to face Juventus. 

Napoli's last game was Sunday against Genoa, who have had several players and staff members test positive. 

AC Milan announced striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic tested positive for COVID-19 ahead of Thursday's UEFA Europa League third qualifying-round match against Norwegian side Bodo/Glimt.

"The Club has informed the relevant authorities and the player has been promptly placed in quarantine at home," Milan said in a statement. "All other team members and staff have tested negative."

The forward responded to the news on Twitter:

Rossoneri defender Leo Duarte also tested positive for the coronavirus Tuesday. Both players took part in Monday's Serie A season-opening 2-0 win against Bologna. Ibrahimovic scored both goals in the contest.

In March, the 38-year-old started a fundraiser with a $109,000 donation to help support hospitals in Italy amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Italy has always given me so much and, in this dramatic moment, I want to give back even more to this country that I love," Ibrahimovic said at the time.

The Swede returned to Milan in December after finishing a two-year stint with MLS' Los Angeles Galaxy. He previously played for the Italian club from 2010 to 2012, scoring 56 goals in 86 appearances across all competitions.

He's one of the most decorated players of the generation, with numerous individual and club accolades during stays with clubs including Juventus, Inter Milan, Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Manchester United.

Milan's positive tests come after Italian sports minister Vincenzo Spadafora announced Friday the country would begin allowing up to 1,000 fans at sporting events as long as clubs and stadiums follow "rules laid down for spacing, masks [and] seat reservations."

Italy was one of the hardest-hit countries early in the pandemic, but it was able to flatten the curve and now ranks 20th with over 302,000 total confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University data.

After Thursday's match against Bodo/Glimt, Milan are scheduled to continue the Serie A campaign Sunday when they visit Stadio Ezio Scida to take on Crotone.

Inter Miami announced the signing of Gonzalo Higuain on Friday, one day after the Argentinian striker mutually terminated his contract with Juventus.

Michelle Kaufman of the Miami Herald reported Higuain's annual base salary will be around $7 million, which will make him MLS' highest-paid player.

The 32-year-old attacker has played for some of the biggest clubs in Europe. After starting his career with River Plate in Argentina, he joined Real Madrid in 2007 before stops with Napoli and Juventus. He also went on loan stints with A.C. Milan and Chelsea in recent years.

He told Inter Miami's official website he's excited to help set a standard for a club in its infancy.

"It excites me that this is a new club with ambition to grow and do things well," Higuain said. "It's a beautiful place to be able to play...I think there's a good team here to be able to do important things."

The striker's goal-scoring numbers have dipped in a more limited role in recent years. He scored 11 times in 44 appearances across all competitions for Juventus last term, but he found the net for his club at least 20 times in eight seasons during a 10-year stretch beginning with Real Madrid in 2008-09.

Moving to Miami, where he should take on a prominent role and face less strenuous competition, gives him a golden opportunity to become a high-impact contributor once again.

"Training, perfecting my craft, the desire to improve on anything I did wrong, never give up, never lose the motivation or the desire to continue to learn," he told the club's website about what helped him achieve past success. "As good of a player as you might be, or as much as you have played at the elite levels, there's always motivation to continue to improve."

The Herons, led by president David Beckham, have struggled during their debut season with a 2-7-2 record through 11 matches.

It hasn't been announced when Higuain will make his debut. Miami is scheduled for a road match against Atlanta United on Saturday. After that, there are two matches left in the regular season, next Wednesday at home against the New York Red Bulls and Sept. 27 on the road against the Philadelphia Union.

Andrea Pirlo's surprise appointment at Juventus suddenly brings a host of new questions as we consider the next stage of the side's development.

The Maurizio Sarri experiment has been written off after just one season—that UEFA Champions League last-16 defeat to Lyon proving to be the final nail in his Juve coffin.

Now there is new excitement, a fresh outlook.

As Juve fan Arjun Pradeep told us: "I am extremely excited. Pirlo was the one who rejuvenated Juventus [as a player] and launched this incredibly successful era.

"Now I want to see a well orchestrated unit that demonstrates a great balance of technique and physicality. I want to see a dominating Juventus side that will also do whatever is necessary to win.

"I believe he has the characteristics to achieve this because as a player he was a genius, who played under some of the greatest coaches to ever grace football."

Pirlo is just days into the job, but there are immediate questions.

Will the transfer targets change? Will Ronaldo stay? Could he bring back Paul Pogba?

Pirlo spoke with the club on Sunday for the first time about their approach to this transfer window, and now we wait to see what the side will look like for the new Serie A season.

There have been plenty of rumours in the past few days, from Sandro Tonali to Isco. So we looked into the situation and called upon Bleacher Report sources in Italy to get an idea of what might happen.

Defence

There is not going to be too much time to consider a complete overhaul of the team before next season, and that might mean a rethink of how they build next season's defence.

The futures of Alex Sandro, Mattia De Sciglio, Danilo and Daniele Rugani have all looked in the balance, but it is thought the club will be careful about which of these they now sell and replace.

Defence was an area of priority last year. Matthijs De Ligt was signed from Ajax as part of the future vision, but he now has a shoulder injury that may make Juve think about the centre of defence a little more than they would want to.

But sources say that while Juve may make some small alterations, they are more likely to focus their big transfer business in areas further up the field.

Midfield

Pirlo was left in tears when Juventus were beaten by Barcelona in the 2015 Champions League final, and it was Paul Pogba who was first to give him a comforting hug.

That was Pirlo's final match for Juve, but senior figures around Turin were always sure he would return. At times, people have also been pretty sure Pogba would return too, but a reunion seems very unlikely.

We asked a couple of well-placed sources about Pogba and the Juve rumours that never seem to go away. For now, we are told—mainly because of the finances involved—that it is "almost impossible."

A deal for Isco, floated by Italian outlet Gazzetta Dello Sport, is unlikely at this stage too.

It is thought Pirlo is a great admirer of his style of play, but Isco's potential fee—likely to be upwards of €50 million—as well as his high wages will be a factor. Another issue would be convincing him to actually leave Real Madrid after seven years at the Santiago Bernabeu.

Maybe a more subtle approach can be expected for the reinvention of the Juve midfield. Arthur has already agreed his move from Barcelona as part of the Miralem Pjanic swap deal, and Dejan Kulusevski is joining from Parma.

The most exciting name on lips of people around the club right now is Brescia's young prince Sandro Tonali, a player linked with so many top clubs in recent months.

This rumour has been doing the rounds for months, but with Pirlo at the wheel instead of Sarri, the player would surely become more tempted. Inter Milan are also making an attempt to sign the player, who has an asking price of around €40 million. Intermediaries have been on the case for weeks trying to find out what other fees would be necessary to sign the 20-year-old Italy international.

"The change in philosophy will not be as complete as it was to be with Sarri," explains Mirko Di Natale of TuttoJuve.com. "There will be great curiosity about how Pirlo will help the midfield, which was the weakest department this year. Players will also be more likely to get advice from someone like Pirlo, a maestro of football."

The chances of Jorginho joining from Chelsea have all but disappeared along with Sarri, but sources still expect the club to follow through with sales in the middle of the park. B/R has been told Sami Khedira is searching for a suitable new club, while Blaise Matuidi is set to join Inter Miami.

Ramsey has previously been told he can search for a new team too, but no one has shown firm interest. England is seen as his only real possibility, but wages of over €7 million per year are a problem for most sides in Europe, so Pirlo may have to find a way to work with the Welshman for now.

Forwards

Cristiano Ronaldo will be frustrated at the Champions League failure this season, but we can expect him to be around to help Pirlo next season. A report from Footmercato in France suggests sporting director Leonardo wants to take him to PSG next season and is making contact with agent Jorge Mendes over the possibility.

Yet sources in Italy feel Ronaldo will wait to see how the Pirlo project begins to unravel, and which names arrive to support him, before he has any thought about leaving.

He'll have Paulo Dybala up front with him next season, though Gonzalo Higuain won't be there.

Sources are adamant Higuain has played his last game for Juve. There is also an impression among some journalists that he might be tempted to terminate his contract one year early and pursue a new venture in America, where there is believed to be MLS interest.

The possibility of a return to Argentina, his homeland, is there too, and River Plate sporting director Enzo Francescoli would love to make the signing happen. 

Douglas Costa and Federico Bernardeschi are also on the market this summer—completing the list of 10 players available or likely to leave. There is realism within the club that not all will find new homes before the transfer window closes.

In terms of Higuain's replacement, though, we might have an area for Pirlo to announce his own surprise. Arkadiusz Milik had been the new man Sarri wanted to lead the attack next season, but that now hangs in the balance.

Sources are suggesting that the deal could still be on because he was available on a good deal with his Napoli contract beginning to run down, but Pirlo's own vision is likely to shape the type of striker they sign.

Raul Jimenez of Wolves has also been mooted, but that deal looks expensive—upwards of €65 million—and might be a risk given the player turns 30 next year. Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang has also been linked but seems set to stay at Arsenal. 

The club are assuring their new coach that they will, gradually, help shape this side exactly as he needs. But cutting back the squad is vital before the big changes can happen.

Juventus are about to begin their latest bid for Champions League glory. Pirlo will get more time than Sarri to focus on his objectives, and because of that there will be no overnight overhaul. This project will take a little time but could ultimately transform Juve's style and success in typical Pirlo fashion.

Changing manager at AC Milan has become a routine procedure in the recent times. Since Massimiliano Allegri departed in 2014, the club have had nine different bosses.

So it came as a pretty big surprise this week when the club performed a U-turn on their plan to install Ralf Rangnick as their next manager.

The former RB Leipzig boss and sporting director was in line to replace Stefano Pioli at the helm as part of a new project designed to lead the Italian giants back towards UEFA Champions League football and Serie A glory.

But seven months of planning for Rangnick's arrival were thrown out the window on Wednesday, and Pioli has been given a new two-year contract on the back of an impressive run of results.

Suddenly, the whole landscape in Milan looks different.

There is new hope that Zlatan Ibrahimovic could stay at the club, and transfer plans are going to change. The quest to return to the Champions League for the first time since 2013/14 is taking a new path. With clever plotting, they may even put up a challenge to Cristiano Ronaldo's Juventus before long.

Journalist Fabrizio Romano told Bleacher Report how the Rangnick decision has altered everything.

"I think Milan did something absolutely new by going after Rangnick," he said. "Since December they had been thinking about him and were going to make him the sort of manager we don't see in Italy. He was going to be a manager who dealt with transfers, coached the team, did everything. That might be normal in Germany or England, but we don't see that in Italy.

"There was going to be an agreement over two years. They had talked about players to sign and the big project, but it all changed. 

"Now Pioli has started to show his skills, and I think he has shown he is right for these players and for this club. Maybe some fans were ready for a new project and will worry he has been kept on just because of some good results. But I think there is more to it than that, and he will be focused on what he can do with this team."

Pioli's results have been good since play resumed in June—seven wins and two draws from nine Serie A matches. He has won the respect of his squad, yet fans do seem to be confused by the situation.

B/R reached out to a number of Milan supporters to gauge the feeling, and the general consensus is that they were ready for the new project under Rangnick to begin. There was hope and, it seemed, fresh ambition.

Oli Fisher is editor-in-Chief at SempreMilan, and he told B/R: "The gut reaction for most fans would be a mixture of things. ... Confusion, because for months we had been led to believe by every major media outlet that Rangnick was coming regardless.

"And relief, because for once the club have opted to continue a good thing that they have going rather than throw it away like they did when Gattuso was in charge. However, there is also an element of worry; have the club thrown away a three-year plan off the back of a good run since lockdown? If so, it may be a dangerous strategy.

"What matters is that Milan have a great core of players who seem to love Pioli and the current management, which of course includes Paolo Maldini, plus they are playing their best football in years and are giving supporters a product on the pitch to be proud of. As always, the key is summer recruitment."

The priority position to deal with in that sense will be in attack—unless Milan convince Ibrahimovic to stay another year. 

The 38-year-old first played for Milan 10 years ago but returned in January on a deal until the end of this season. He has scored eight times in 17 appearances, and his quality, experience and leadership has brought new life to the side, particularly since the restart.

He was expected to leave, but that might not be the case.

Romano explained: "If Rangnick had come in, Ibrahimovic would have left. He didn't have any contact with him and didn't expect anything. But now I think there is a chance he stays.

"This Milan team is still Ibra's Milan, and after the last game of the season, there will be talks with his agent, Mino Raiola, about the situation. I think in August they will sit down to look at the project. Two weeks ago, that did not seem possible.

"If he stays, then they won't need to sign a top striker. They will still sign a forward, but not a big one. If he goes? They will spend a lot on a striker."

Some exciting names are being linked to Milan ahead of the next transfer window, with Brescia's Sandro Tonali, Real Madrid's Luka Jovic and Fiorentina's Federico Chiesa all mentioned as targets in the Italian media this week.

Daniele Longo is a journalist covering AC Milan for Calciomercato.com, and he told B/R: "Milan would like to take Jovic from Real Madrid to reform that couple (with Rebic) who did so well at Eintracht Frankfurt. As for Tonali, Milan are trying, but Inter are ahead and have already presented an important offer to Brescia. He would like to play in Milan, which is the team he cheers for.

"I believe that AC Milan is still in a difficult phase of slow progress. They have an ambition to return to the Champions League, but at the moment they are not competitive to fight Juventus for the league. It would take important investments on the market and more unity of purpose among managers, but this is unlikely to occur quickly.

"Much will also depend on the renewal of Zlatan. The Swedish champion wants to stay, but [club executive] Ivan Gazidis is making assessments due to the age and high salary requested."

There are other issues to sort out too.

Milan need to tie up some loose ends on members of the current squad. New contracts for goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma and midfielder Ismael Bennacer are important, along with making sure Ante Rebic stays beyond his initial loan deal from Frankfurt.

"Many things will change for Milan," said transfer expert Romano. "Donnarumma has one year left on his contract, and they have to extend that—they cannot lose him. So they are working on that.

"Also, they need Rebic to stay because he is terrific. It will cost €25 million to keep him.

"With transfers, they will also go for a centre-back to go with Alessio Romagnoli, and they want a right-back as well."

Milan's transfer budget this summer will be around €75 million, but they can bring in extra cash by offloading players. They have just sold Suso to Sevilla for €24 million, for example, and that money can be reinvested in the squad.

So what does all this mean for Milan's hopes of becoming a genuine European force once again?

And is there any chance they can close in on Juventus and their dominance on the domestic scene?

"I think they need two or three years to catch Juve," said Romano. "If they do everything well, that could happen, but of course teams like Inter will be there too.

"They have to find a way into the Champions League over the next two years, and then, with money and the right players, they could catch Juve."

Milan are playing some of the best football in Italy—now Pioli will get the chance to build a team that could return to being one of Europe's true giants.

Since signing Cristiano Ronaldo from Real Madrid in July 2018 for £99.2 million, there has been a clear pursuit of stellar talent to help Juventus become European champions.

That move to sign one of the world's best and most marketable players was a major part of a journey that they hope makes them the best team on the pitch, and the biggest club off it, by 2024.

Their signings in recent times have been bold and shown different aspects of their power. Last summer, they signed Matthijs de Ligt from Ajax—beating the likes of Barcelona to his signature—showing they could entice the best up and coming talent in the world, as well as an established superstar like Ronaldo.

And now we have seen their pursuit of Arthur Melo from Barcelona, which is up-to-the minute evidence they can also take away key players—not yet in their prime—from another superclub.

At the time of writing, the deal as not been closed, but Juve have had to get smart in order to sign Arthur, taking a slightly different approach from the past two years.

They have not been concerned about their approach to spending until now. Joao Cancelo, Douglas Costa and Leonardo Bonucci were also signed in the summer of 2018 for a combined fee of around £104 million.

The following summer they laid out a further £169.65 million on transfer deals for De Ligt, Danilo, Cristian Romero, Luca Pellegrini and Merih Demiral. On top of all that, they signed free agents Aaron Ramsey, Adrien Rabiot and Gianluigi Buffon on huge contracts. And in January, they sealed a deal for £31.5 million Dejan Kulusevski, 20, from Atalanta. 

Suddenly, though, the Italian champions are having to curb their enthusiasm for big-money signings.

The impact of COVID-19 is to be felt hard in Turin, and sources say the lack of incoming revenue has led the club to think more carefully about how they balance the books. Big fees are a problem, and so too are the high wages they have been dishing out. 

The simple solution is that Juve will look to sell in order to buy. And as part of that, big names can leave—with Gonzalo Higuain and Miralem Pjanic among the most high-profile figures available. 

Scenarios are already opening up for this summer, and B/R sources have confirmed that Higuain could be one of those, and he would ideally be replaced by Napoli striker Arkadiusz Milik. Pjanic, as we know, has been in talks over that Barcelona swap with Arthur for weeks.

But others are being made available too, with Costa, Ramsey, Rabiot and Daniele Rugani all unsure where their futures lie.

Juve were clever in the way they approached the deal for Arthur. They took his valuation, then Pjanic's, and are agreeing to pay the difference. 

Sources say Juve will continue to look at such deals as a way of capturing prime targets. And we should not be surprised if, at some point, they look towards Paul Pogba again.

He is still seen as the dream signing by some at the club, and it's a deal that several sources are convinced they will continue to work on. There is an acceptance it won't work out unless Manchester United are accommodating and the player himself is eager for it to happen.

But a scenario that could work is a swap deal—and the idea of a switch with Ramsey has been floated before, sources say. At this stage, there is no movement. 

A look at other names being linked with Juve—think Arsenal's Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang—suggests the path to more big signings could be coming too. Though sources have been keen to play down that particular link, stressing that Milik is the prime target. 

It is coach Maurizio Sarri who has the vision of Milik leading his front line, and while his first year in charge of the club has not been easy, we should expect him to continue into next term.

The club are on course for the Serie A title and are still in this season's UEFA Champions League, so Sarri has some breathing space despite the fact fans are not completely convinced by what they have seen so far.

Rav Dhillon from the JuveFC.com blog told B/R: "Sarri has yet to truly win fans over. Many were hoping for the type of football we saw in Napoli, combined with trophies. That's fallen flat, partly due to Sarri not truly bonding with his team, but also because the management have signed players that they valued, rather than signing players that fit with Sarri's ideas about how he wants to play football.

"I don't think they'll sack him, but in that case, they need to back him. If he can turn around the Champions League deficit against Lyon [the French team are 1-0 up after the first leg of the round-of-16 tie] and win us the title, beating Inter along the way, I think it'll go some way to restoring faith and buying him some time to implement his ideas better with a new crop of players, particularly midfielders."  

Midfield is an area Sarri is used to being scrutinised. At Chelsea, much was made of his signing of Jorginho and the way he adapted to the team. Now, unsurprisingly, the player is being linked with a move to Juve. To make it happen, Juve would try to send a player in the other direction, in keeping with the one-in, one-out system they will now have to use.

The impact of COVID-19 is a test for Juve in their grand plan to dominate European football.

When they decided to increase the money being spent on the team in 2019, it was with playing catch up with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester United in mind off the field. But it was also with the goal of winning the Champions League for the first time since 1996.

Juventus will continue to strive for greatness on and off the pitch. They are just having to slightly alter their way of landing the targets that will get them there. 

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Serie A is aiming for a June 13 return after conducting a video call with its 20 clubs, according to the Associated Press. 

The league is still waiting for approval from the Italian government before it can cement the date for its restart.

"As far as the resumption of sports activities is concerned, the date of June 13 for the resumption of the championship has been indicated ... in accordance with medical protocols for the protection of players and all those involved," Serie A said in a statement.

The Italian Olympic Committee suspended all sporting events on March 9 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Italy was one of the hardest-hit countries early in the pandemic, with one medical official positing Atalanta's 4-1 Champions League win over Valencia on Feb. 19 helped accelerate the spread.

With the pandemic slowing across parts of Europe, some leagues are beginning to slowly come back.

The Bundesliga is resuming Saturday with seven matches and then three more fixtures across Sunday and Monday.

The United Kingdom informed the Premier League it may pursue a resumption as early as June 1, but the matter is far from resolved.

The Washington Post's Steven Goff reported Major League Soccer is aiming to start training June 1 ahead of staging matches starting July 1. All teams would be stationed in Orlando, Florida.

Juventus lead Serie A with 63 points through 26 matches. Lazio are in second with 62 points, while Inter Milan are nine points back in third but have one match in hand.

Bleacher Report's David Gardner interviews athletes and other sports figures for the podcast How to Survive Without Sports.

The longer time goes on, the harder it gets to shake off the feeling that there is something wrong with AC Milan's No. 9 shirt.

Since Filippo Inzaghi retired in 2012, the nine players who have worn his old jersey have scored 29 Serie A goals between them. By way of comparison, that's only two goals more than Lazio striker Ciro Immobile—Serie A's current top scorer—had netted in the six months before the season was suspended due to the coronavirus outbreak.

The experience of Krzysztof Piatek, Milan's most recent No. 9, only served to fuel talk that the shirt is cursed. After a prolific start to the 2018-19 season with Genoa, Piatek joined Milan in January 2019 but was told by then-sporting director Leonardo that the right to wear the No. 9 jersey would have to be "earned."

With the No. 19 on his back, Piatek scored nine Serie A goals in the second half of the season and was rewarded with the No. 9 shirt. Then he stopped scoring. The Poland international notched only four league goals for Milan in the first half of the current campaign and was sold to Hertha Berlin in January.

The roll-call of strikers who have worn Milan's No. 9 shirt since Inzaghi hung up his boots eight years ago features both rising stars like Piatek, Mattia Destro and Andre Silva, and proven goalscorers such as Fernando Torres and Gonzalo Higuain. All have tried, and all have failed.

"I think there's something supernatural, a kind of spell," says Benedetta Radaelli, a Milan supporter and presenter on Italian television channel Sport Mediaset. "Since Inzaghi, nobody has had any luck. I think his body and his energy are still inside that shirt, because he loved the shirt so much. If I were AC Milan, I would withdraw it. It's so unlucky. Put it in some place where nobody can touch it or look at it."

The sorry tale begins with Alexandre Pato, the Brazilian prodigy whose sad, injury-triggered decline had already set in by the time he swapped his No. 7 shirt for Inzaghi's old number in the summer of 2012. After six injury-plagued months in which he failed to score a single league goal, he returned to Brazil with Corinthians.

Alessandro Matri, an August 2013 signing from Juventus, scored only one goal in 15 league games before being loaned out to Fiorentina the following January, never to return. Two players wore the No. 9 the following season—Torres in the campaign's first half, Destro in the second—but the pair amassed only four league goals between them. Inzaghi, back at Milan as head coach that season and exasperated by the lack of reliable options up front, ended up deploying French winger Jeremy Menez as a striker for much of the campaign.

Recruited from Shakhtar Donetsk in July 2015, Luiz Adriano wore the No. 9 without distinction for a single season before passing it on to Gianluca Lapadula, who had scored goals for fun with Pescara in Serie B but found the going a little tougher in Serie A. Highly regarded Portugal international Silva, signed as part of new Chinese owner Li Yonghong's chaotic €200 million transfer splurge in the summer of 2017, fared no better.

Higuain arrived on loan from Juventus in August 2018 and dismissed talk of a curse, declaring: "I have already worn a few shirts which carry a heavy burden, so the No. 9 shirt here isn't a problem." But after five months, and only six Serie A goals, he decided to re-join forces with Maurizio Sarri, his former Napoli mentor, at Chelsea. Enter (and then, swiftly, exit) Piatek.

Five Milan strikers have hit double figures in Serie A goals in the post-Inzaghi era—Stephan El Shaarawy, Giampaolo Pazzini, Mario Balotelli, Carlos Bacca and Patrick Cutrone—but none reached the 20-goal mark and none were wearing the famous number. Synonymous with goals in the days of Marco van Basten, George Weah and Inzaghi, the jersey now lies vacant, a sacred garment turned poisoned chalice. And with each new failure, the pressure to break the curse grows even stronger.

"The AC Milan shirt is so heavy, especially now," says Alessandra Bocci, who reports on Milan for La Gazzetta dello Sport. "They've been in crisis for many years, so every year it gets heavier and heavier."

Mark Hateley is not easily given to sentimentality, but on the wall of his study at his home just outside Glasgow he has mounted one of the Milan No. 9 shirts that he wore during his time at the club in the 1980s.

Signed from Portsmouth in the summer of 1984 to spearhead a Milan team being rebuilt after relegation two years previously, he swiftly endeared himself to Rossoneri fans by scoring a trademark header against Inter Milan that gave his new club a first derby victory in six years.

As the son of a celebrated striker (his late father, Tony, played up front for Notts County, Aston Villa, Chelsea and Liverpool, among others), Hateley knows more than most about unhelpful comparisons. He says he embarked upon life in Milan without giving a thought to the players that had worn his shirt before him.

"I've never gone into a team and thought, 'Who's gone before?'" he tells Bleacher Report. "You can only be as good as you can be, so just go and be your best."

Silvio Berlusconi's arrival as owner in 1986 propelled Milan into a new dimension, and Hateley, who left San Siro a year later, says the golden era that followed under the management of Arrigo Sacchi and Fabio Capello created a burden of expectation that dogs the club's players to this day.

"It's about being in the right place at the right time," says the former England striker, who now works in a business development role at his old club Rangers. "The expectations of Milan go back now to the days of Van Basten, [Ruud] Gullit and [Frank] Rijkaard, Paolo Maldini, [Alessandro] Costacurta and Franco Baresi. The heady, European days. You go to a football club that has been really, really successful and that's what the fans will always crave. You see a No. 9 running around now, and they probably can't emulate what was happening back then. It's out of your control."

Milan's fans may still expect the best, but economic realities mean that the club can no longer compete for the world's most sought-after players. Where once Milan led the way in the transfer market, setting four world transfer records between 1954 and 1992, they now find themselves sidelined by the likes of Paris Saint-Germain, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Manchester City. Milan have never spent more on a single player than the €42 million they shelled out (unsuccessfully, as it transpired) to prise Leonardo Bonucci from Juventus in July 2017. When it comes to spending big, the modern superclubs have left them behind.

In an increasingly competitive market for an increasingly small group of elite centre-forwards, Milan have often been obliged to take punts on unproven young strikers—Silva, Piatek, 2019 recruit Rafael Leao—who have not delivered. It has not helped that the strikers that have come in have joined unsuccessful squads fumbling around for an identity, rather than the battle-hardened, trophy-winning lineups of years gone by.

"If you join a mechanism, a group, a system that works, it's different," says Bocci. "[Andriy] Shevchenko was a phenomenal player, but it was easier for him because he was playing with Rui Costa, Maldini, [Alessandro] Nesta, Jaap Stam and players like that. Pato was very young but arrived in a good system with very big players. Rafael Leao is not Pato, of course, but he joined a poor Milan."

If the gulf between Milan's past and present continues to yawn, there is one player who straddles both eras. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, emblem of Milan's last Scudetto success in 2011, has scored three goals in eight league outings since returning to the club from L.A. Galaxy on a six-month deal in December, and although he was wearing the No. 21 shirt prior to the season's suspension, there are those who believe he could be the solution to the No. 9 hex.

"If someone scored with the Milan No. 9 on his back, then I am happy," Inzaghi told Sky Sport Italia in January. "So let's end this 'curse'. It's not right to retire the No. 9, because someone must always wear it, but I hope that Ibra—if he stays—decides to take it on, because he's got broad enough shoulders to carry it off."

Ibrahimovic, now 38, has never been one to shy away from a challenge, and with a career average of 0.56 goals per game in the No. 9 shirt, which he has previously worn at Ajax, Juventus, Barcelona, Manchester United and L.A. Galaxy, it does not seem like an assignment that would give him sleepless nights.

In the meantime, speculation is beginning to mount over the identity of the next player who will be invited to don the ill-fated jersey. Milan have been linked to Napoli's Arkadiusz Milik and Mauro Icardi, who is currently on loan at PSG from Inter. However, Jean-Pierre Papin, another former wearer of the red and black No. 9 shirt, has urged the club to make a move for Edinson Cavani.

As far as Hateley is concerned, Milan's No. 9 shirt is not a millstone to be avoided but a prize to be seized with both hands.

"If I was going to Milan right now, I'd be thinking, 'Right, I'm going to be the best No. 9 that has been here for a long, long time,'" he says. "And that would drive me to be that No. 9 who could be part of folklore forever. That's the sort of mentality you have to take going into big clubs. You have to have broad enough shoulders to carry the expectations."

For now, the curse of the No. 9 shirt endures. But someday, surely, somebody will succeed in pulling the sword from the stone. 

With Serie A and other competitions currently on hiatus because of the coronavirus, Juventus announced Saturday the players and coach Maurizio Sarri have agreed to a wage reduction.

"The understanding provides for the reduction of the compensation for an amount equal to the monthly payments of March, April, May and June 2020," the club said in a statement. "In the coming weeks, personal agreements with the players and the coach will be finalised, as required by the current regulations."

According to Reuters (via ESPN), the total will save Juventus €90 million, equaling about $100.26 million.

The club added it will "negotiate in good faith" with the players for increases in wages if the season does resume.

The 2019-20 Serie A season was halted in early March along with all sports in Italy during the massive outbreak of the coronavirus in the country. Per CNN.com, there have been more than 10,000 deaths in Italy as a result of the disease.

Giorgio Chiellini reportedly led player negotiations, while Cristiano Ronaldo had reportedly personally accepted a wage cut of €3.8 million.

The Portuguese star had also donated €1 million to hospitals in Lisbon and Porto to help the fight against COVID-19.

While cutting wages for the entire club is a drastic move, it has become a relatively common occurrence with La Liga squads like Barcelona and Atletico Madrid requiring action to save money.