The Atalanta president Antonio Percassi has confirmed that the club plan to buy Charles De Ketelaere from AC Milan on a permanent basis.
De Ketelaere arrived at Milan in the summer of 2022 and was the marquee signing of the post-Scudetto transfer window, joining from Club Brugge for a fee above €30m. However, he never hit the ground running and he did not manage to score a single goal in his first season.
The decision was made to send him out on loan to Atalanta last summer, and it would be fair to say that he is very much back on track. The Belgian has racked up 11 goals and nine assists in 44 games so far, leading to suggestions he will join La Dea permanently.
As Fabrizio Romano reports in a tweet, Percassi spoke after Atalanta’s Europa League win over Marseille last night and he was asked about the idea of signing De Ketelaere on permanent deal.
His response was clear: “We will make it happen.” Romano adds that Atalanta have €23m option to buy clause plus €4m add-ons and 10% sell-on clause for Milan.
Given that Atalanta have reached the Europa League final following last night’s result, it will certainly boost their available budget.
He has similar numbers as Zirkze. Too bad Pioli never tried him as a Striker.
Pioli wouldnt recognize talent if it was sitting on his nose. This bald fr@ud is the kind of coach who will deem an 18 y/o Messi or a 22 y/o CR7 as ‘not ready’ because he wont defend lol Dude is scared sh1tless of playing Simic who showed he is ready in his debut match yet here we are looking for defenders elsewhere.
Rhus is a steal for Atalanta.
I’m happy for you CDK, Maldini knew that talent he saw in you when he signed you.
How embarrassing that he made it to the final with Atalanta, terrible
Still can’t believe we loan him out and he makes the final with Atalanta. Sickening
While he has definitely improved and gained confidence, CDK still drifts in and out of games and his finishing needs a lot of work. He’s on the right track but still not at the level his stats suggest. I would have liked him to stay at Milan because Leao, Tonali, and Adli all struggled at first and we also lost Diaz and didn’t sign anyone capable of filling that creative void. Anyways, as with Tonali, I think next season will show whether or not Milan made a mistake.
Last night he played everywhere, from RW to AM and SS and he knew exactly where to be and what to do.
So we can agree that he was not a bust signing of Maldini but rather a wasted talent by Pioli.
And another lesson (not) learned – algorithms and moneyball go as far as measured data can give. Mental aspects of a player coming into a new environment, league, language and culture is an aspect these bankers and fund key account managers are yet to conquer. But it seems it doesn’t really matter to them as long as there’s a resale value in question. Buy low, sell high is the way.
I generally don’t like that Moncada and co dump their very own work so easily and quickly…..CDK, Romero, Vranckx etc. They need to give it some time and also show trust in their own scouting abilities 🤷♂️
Even if “Buy low, sell high” is the way for the management, will they even be able to achieve that and will they be able to find football success along the way? With Maldini and Co. we won the Scudetto, reached the CL semis, and had five players double or triple in value (Maignan, Theo, Bennacer, Tonali, Leao). Out of the players signed this season, how many do we think can be protagonists in our football success? So far, only Pulisic. How many do we expect to be sold for 40+ million two or three years down the line? I say zero to two.
Recruitment will be key this summer. I see only one of RLC and Reijnders starting next season. Musah and Adli definitely on the bench or gone and Okafor on the bench unless we play a two-striker system.
Please stop,
The problem isn’t in the signings, stats shows that from midfield to the attack, our new signings are among the top scorers in the team.
The problem is simple, after we won the Scudetto Pioli got overwhelmingly figured out, a true football enthusiast bereaved of any sentiment and fanatism knows that our UCL semi final run reflects a designing of a providential hand.
Is this the only photo cdk has😂
I mean they always use this photo of his hand on his mouth as if he is disappointed
CDK now has the third most goal contributions (20) across all competitions for Atalanta. That’s absolutely crazy. He’s below Scamacca and Koop by 1. And tied with Lookman. That’s pretty impressive.
Let’s hope with Pioli getting the sack at the end of the season, CDK hopefully decides against signing a permanent deal with Atlanta and opted to return back to the sansiro. And this is all my wishful thinking. I was against his loan/sale deal and so I still hope that he too love Milan as much to want to stay…
I don’t think it’s CDK decision to make.
Not sure if anyone remembers this but while he was at Milan, CDK played like he was scared the ball was going to bite him. And before anyone mentions it – 100x worse than Tonali’s or Leao’s first season.
Doesn’t matter. Atalanta will buy him, develop him for another year or two, then offload him for 80mil, and we get the 10% and a nice Capital Gain.
Then we could even say that Maldini’s plan paid off after all. LOL!!! Everyone wins.
Not sure he was worse than Tonali’s first season. Definetly worse than Leao’s first though.
But it doens’t really matter, Atalanta plays in such a different system that I’m not sure that he would have succeeded this season with us, and given how little time Pioli would probably have given him he won’t really improve.
But now we’re gonna get 23M+bonuses from him, which is a good start to look for some players this summer.
Good for his career . Good money for atalanta too . Consider it ACM never buy him from brugges but atalanta did it . 23m euro + 4m euro add on + 10% resale value already same price with ACM buy him from brugges