AC Milan have prioritised the signing of defender Ozan Kabak from Schalke in the January transfer window, according to a report.
Calciomercato.com report how Paolo Maldini and Frederic Massara “want to upgrade a car that is traveling at a fast pace both in the league and in the Europa League” – with the support of Elliott Management – and have highlighted the defence as an area that needs help.
The priority of the management is to give Stefano Pioli a centre-back who can give some rest to Simon Kjaer and Alessio Romagnoli and the blueprint has been outlined: the new signing must be young, very good in one-on-one situations and with costs deemed suitable for Elliott’s policy.
Kabak perfectly meets those requirements, and the report adds that the the Turkish international is the No.1 target for defence, above Mohamed Simakan of Strasbourg and Matteo Lovato of Hellas Verona.
Massara spoke with the agents of Ozan Kabak again recently and reiterated Milan’s intentions to go back in for the former Stuttgart star, and the Bundesliga side have lowered their valuation to €20million.
Schalke want to “start remedying a disastrous budget” and for that reason Milan would not want to go beyond €15m, but they could include bonuses as they did in the summer to buy Sandro Tonali from Brescia.
The contacts are alive and frequent, while Liverpool have shown a certain interest in Kabak but still a concrete offer is yet to arrive.
