Adriano Galliani (Monza, 30 July 1944) is an Italian sports executive, entrepreneur and politician, deputy vice-president and managing director of Monza.
Professionally linked since the 70s to Fininvest, owned by Silvio Berlusconi, he is mainly known for being, from 1986 to 2017, CEO of the Milan Football Association with which he managed to win 29 trophies in 31 years; At the same time, he twice held the role of deputy vice-president of the Rossoneri club (from 2004 to 2006 and again from 2008 to 2017). From 2002 to 2006 he was president of the National Professional League, as well as vice president of the Serie A League from 2013 to 2017. Since 2018 he has been CEO and since 2022 deputy vice-president of Monza, as well as until 2021 vice-president of the Serie B League.
Outside football, from 2017 to 2019 he was chairman of Mediaset Premium of the real estate companies belonging to the Fininvest group. From 23 March 2018 to 12 October 2022 he was senator of the Italian Republic for the Forza Italia party.
In 2010 he received the Globe Soccer Award for Lifetime Achievement and in 2011 he was inducted into the Italian Football Hall of Fame for his managerial role.
He is the author of the autobiography “Memorie di Adriano G.” (Piemme Editions), presented in Fabio Fazio’s program “Che tempo che fa”, where he claims to have had to change the title of the book, adding G. because the Gallimard publishing house has French contested the homonymy in the title with the book by Marguerite Yourcenar.
“These are not the Annals of Tacitus nor the Almanac of Panini.
I was not interested in a detailed compilation of goals and matches, there are already several; I wanted to collect and give order to the emotions that have marked twenty-five years, in which I was CEO of the Milan Football Association. I didn’t write a volume of history, I composed a songbook of love for Milan, which was my life.
It was the heart that selected my memories and, since the heart is not commanded, it is useless to ask why there are things and why others are missing. These are The Memoirs of Adriano G. And they should be taken this way». Adriano Galliani won everything: league titles, champions’ cups, intercontinental cups. For the first time he tells himself in a sincere autobiography, full of anecdotes and background on his beginnings, the “Monza” years, on how Milan’s adventure began, on the Milan of the Immortals and Invincibles, on the champions who played for the Rossoneri from 1986 to 2011, on the wonderful relationship with President Silvio Berlusconi. The memories of Adriano G. is a series of vivid and moving memories, from Arrigo Sacchi to Ancelotti, from the most beloved champion, Marco Van Basten to Andrij Shevchenko, Ricardo Kaká and Zlatan Ibrahimović. In between, so many market negotiations, so many twists, so many triumphs and raised cups. In this long “open-hearted confession” there are the indelible thoughts of those who climb to the roof of the world and perform an epic and extraordinary sporting feat.
An example because whoever wrote it is or was a real manager. Becoming a manager, in short, even just for fun, is a tiring job that leaves you a few hours to think that it was the coveted life, but then you become it seriously.
At the end of the reading one wonders: but do I really have to work so much?
The real secret of this book, that is that those who criticize the figure of the manager and box him at the bottom are also managers.
A far-sighted character who has been able, without a doubt, to interpret the rules of the market by dominating them without being overwhelmed. A man has always been, in fact, a great example for all those who are struggling with company life every day.
Galliani leads the reader behind the scenes of an apparatus of complex public apparatuses, revealing a whole series, robberies, tricks and subterfuges that offer a bleak panorama of the world of malfeasance.
They are not technical topics, but business that can interest everyone, but they are analyzed in an unusual and really interesting and complete book, and has had the opportunity to ascertain in the field various phenomenologies, also implies other skills.
The book is tasty and rich in situations.
Leadership, Galliani teaches us, also implies other skills: knowing how to manage one’s own ignorance.