MILAN – Aboard Milan’s state of the art high-speed train to Reggio Emilia ahead of Sunday’s match against Sassuolo, CEO Adriano Galliani took the chance to hand out an award to Ignazio Abate for reaching the milestone of 200 appearances with the Milan jersey last week. Galliani said the following:

“This is a special award ceremony on one of the best, if not the best trains in the world, it’s fantastic. We have the great honour of being the first to be on board this wonderful train after the Italian President. We thank trenitalia and all the directors that were very kind in inviting us and allowing us to make this wonderful trip, which will take us to Reggio Emilia in 30 minutes. Ignazio has reached 200 matches with Milan. 200 special appearances, because he made his first team debut at 17 years of age in the Italian Cup away at Sampdoria. Then he started a long journey before finally coming back to Milan 6 years ago and so he’s practically made 200 appearances in 6 years and he can add to the record this season. I think we’ve reached the moment to say or to nearly say that he will remain at Milan. We won’t make it yet official, but let’s say that it’s 99.9999% likely that he will stay at Milan. A youth sector product that we never wanted to sell, after years of loans, he came back to continue, and I hope to finish as late as possible, his career with our colours. Congratulations to Ignazio and I hope that you can pick up many more of these awards.”