Cassano blasts Milan stars: ‘Sick of Joao Felix, Leao is half a player’

epa11899222 AC Milan’s Joao Felix gestures during the Italian Serie A soccer match between AC Milan and Hellas Verona FC in Milan, Italy, 15 February 2025. EPA-EFE/ROBERTO BREGANI

Former Italy, Roma and Real Madrid star Antonio Cassano hit out at several Milan players, admitting he is ‘sick of waiting’ for Joao Felix to develop, while Rafael Leao is ‘half a player.’

The Rossoneri are languishing in ninth place in the Serie A table and their best hope of qualifying for Europe now might be winning the Coppa Italia, as they face Inter in the semi-final on Wednesday.

Fresh off a 2-1 defeat away to Napoli, Cassano gave a damning verdict on Sergio Conceicao’s squad in his own inimitable and entirely undiplomatic style.

“I saw a great Napoli side, with a great coach who deserved the victory, but Milan in the first half was disconcertingly bad, Romelu Lukaku could’ve scored that second goal wearing slippers. It was shocking,” said Cassano on Daniele Adani’s YouTube show ‘Viva el Futbol.’

Joao Felix was the surprising starter, but made practically zero impact, while Rafael Leao livened things up after coming on as a second half substitute.

It looks increasingly unlikely that Milan will make the loan move for Joao Felix a permanent one, as once again he failed to deliver on his promise.

“Look, I really love Joao Felix, but I’ve been waiting for seven years for him to flourish and frankly I am sick of waiting now,” added Cassano.

“I fell in love after the first five months at Benfica, but since then he only plays in fits and starts, then gets passed onto another club. He came to Milan, scored a goal, the first few games were good, then he just disappeared again.”

Cassano frustrated with Joao Felix and Leao at Milan

Many Milan fans were frustrated with seeing Leao on the bench, though FantAntonio insists there is far too much responsibility placed on the Portuguese winger’s shoulders.

“Now some failed, incompetent parasite tries to say Leao has to play, he is the most talented player at Milan. Stop, absolutely not. In my view, Christian Pulisic and Tijjani Reijnders are the best Milan players, they are the ones who scored 15 goals.

“Pulisic works all the way down the flank, he can cut inside, provide assists, score goals, work for the team. He does everything that Leao does not know how to do,” continued Cassano.

“Leao gets one pass right for every four he tries. He got only six goals this season. We are here to educate those people who don’t know what it really means to play football, study, love and respect this sport. One bit of skill does not mean you are a great player. He scored six goals.

“These people want to talk about Leao, when Reijnders and Pulisic got twice as many goals? These are players who make the difference, not Leao. He is half a player, that’s all. Why don’t they talk about Riccardo Orsolini, who scored more goals than Leao? Because he only earns €1.5m per season compared to Leao’s €8m?

“Orsolini, Mattia Zaccagni and Ademola Lookman are all better than Leao.”