The immediate aim of AC Milan’s U.S. trek was exactly what it appeared to be: assimilating a group of newcomers — American star Christian Pulisic among them — while preparing for the coming Serie A campaign. The business is the business.
 
That was just part of it.
 
The Rossoneri spent nearly two weeks in Los Angeles, playing two friendlies and training toward a third in Las Vegas, while seeking a deeper connection within the community — soccer and otherwise — under American ownership with a Southern California stake. The most concrete of these might surprise.
 
AC Milan, looking to build upon and greater emphasize its five-year-old women’s program, took initial steps toward creating a partnership with Angel City FC, the second-year National Women’s Soccer League club revered mostly for its celeb-heavy ownership group, the large and adoring crowds at BMO Stadium, and, most important, its vigorous, progressive social stance.
 
Both teams say they want to work together. We’ll see what it all means in time.
 
“This is a reminder of how incredible the football community is and the global nature of the sport,” Angel City co-founder/president Julie Uhrman said through a spokesperson. “Our ability to meet, trade best practices, and enjoy incredible football is what makes this sport great. We look forward to continued partnership and building this sport together.”
 
The relationship would offer real benefits to both sides. Angel City offers the veneer of equality, of female empowerment, of the importance in embracing the women’s game in a rapidly evolving world. Milan, as one of the true standard-bearers in the men’s game, offers legitimacy within the global game.
 
An AC Milan contingent met with Angel City officials — part of what a Rossoneri spokesman called “a very first preliminary step” — and a group from the club attended the Angelenos’ 2-1 NWSL Challenge Cup victory over Portland Thorns FC.
 
“Female soccer is growing globally, also in Italy,” Milan captain Davide Calabria told Soccer America. “For AC Milan, it’s really important to make this growth that can be relevant socially and also, of course, in growing the [women’s game]. …
 
“It’s a very important message, that there can be [in soccer] this kind of equality and be accessible for anyone.”
 
That’s basically Angel City’s essence, a great part of what the club represents, and Milan’s desire to align as it seeks to advance its women’s program makes sense as the professional game continues to improve its standing in Europe.
 
The Rossoneri women have been one of Italy’s top teams since debuting in 2018, going 70-20-17 while finishing second twice and third three times in five Serie A seasons. They were third last season, when AS Roma ended Juventus’ five-year title run, and sent four players to the Women’s World Cup: Sweden captain Kosovare Asllani, backup Italy goalkeeper Laura Giuliani, reserve Netherlands midfielder Aniek Nouwen, and reserve Denmark midfielder Sara Thrige.
 
The game has evolved greatly in Italy, which has embraced full professionalism but lags behind European powers Germany, England, France, Spain, Netherlands and Sweden, and there remain steps toward establishing the game as something meaningful within Italian society.
 
Elisabet Spina, who heads Milan’s women’s program, says that “women’s football is very important” to the club and to the Italian federation.
 
“In recent years, we have grown as a team and [women’s soccer] as a movement at a national level,” she said through a spokesman. “[Serie A] has become a lot more competitive, and the transition to professionalism has sanctioned a point of no return — just think that in Italy, women footballers are the first and currently only athletes to be considered professional — from which we can only look forward to closing the gap that still exists between Italy and other European and American leagues, which remain the model.
 
“Investment from the federation and individual professional clubs has certainly allowed women’s football to develop recently, providing the girls with adequate sports centers and trained staff. There is still a long way to go, but we are going in the right direction.”
 
The club has a full girls academy, starting with U-8 teams, and reports that participation among girls is rising in Lombardy and through the country.
 
“We have seen a great boom,” said Calabria, who was joined by teammates Simon Kjaer, Noah Okafor and Jan-Carlo Simic in a field-level suite at the Angel City game. “A great explosion.”
 
Academies remain somewhere on the horizon in the NWSL, although Angel City has involved two high school seniors, both bound for top college programs — one of them teen phenom Alyssa Thompson‘s little sister — in its training sessions this season. The club and league must continue to evolve to meet its expectations and hope partnerships with top clubs overseas can aid in that march.
 
“Obviously, any club that’s been around for the period of time with the success such as AC Milan is brilliant to touch base with and get ideas from and to connect with,” said Becki Tweed, who has guided Angel City through a club-record, seven-game unbeaten streak in all competitions since taking over as interim head coach nearly a month ago. “I think it’s brilliant. You’re starting to see men’s and women’s football to cross over, and we can build relationships and partnerships within clubs.”
 
Nothing is yet official, but the clubs are expected to share information, training regimens, how the day-to-day is managed, brand-building and so forth, with visits by the technical and front-office staffs and possibly player exchanges of some sort.
 
The first tangible connection could come with Angel City defender Allyson Swaby, a Jamaica national team standout, joining AC Milan in a deal the clubs consider imminent. It is uncertain whether the move would be a loan or transfer; Swaby has been on loan to Paris-St. Germain.
 
“Our journey starts now,” an AC Milan spokesman said in an email. “We have a common goal to improve our processes/methodology/performances on and off the field. We are to build our common path now.”
 
AC Milan is looking to establish a foothold in Los Angeles, which does not have a sizable Italian community, behind New York-based RedBird Capital, which bought the club 14 months ago and maintains an office on Wilshire Boulevard in Beverly Hills. It’s about business more than soccer.
 
“Why are we here? …” club CEO Giorgio Furlani began his media conference following Milan’s first training session at BMO Field on July 21, the day after the team arrived in L.A. “We’re here because the U.S. is really important for us. The U.S. is the biggest sport market in the world. Soccer is rapidly growing, so this is a really important market for us. It’s top three in terms of international markets for us … important and strategic for us.
 
“We are American-owned. RedBird Capital … operate at the core of the intersection of sports, media, entertainment and culture, and L.A. is the capital of all these things. L.A. is the capital of entertainment. We in Milan are the capital of fashion — a couple of cities around the world might challenge us, but we don’t think so — and so fashion, culture, entertainment all come together. It’s important for us to be here.”
 
Calabria and his three teammates exchanged jerseys with a group of Angel City players, led by Sydney Leroux, then settled in with some Milan staff to watch the first half of the July 29 game, applauding the first of Savannah McCaskill’s two goals and marveling at the atmosphere generated by an audience that topped 14,000.

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