Youssouf Fofana has his mind set on joining AC Milan this summer, not even willing to consider another destination. This was reported by today’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport, stating that the move could be postponed to next year.
The pink newspaper has taken stock of the situation (see photo below), considering just how tiring the negotiations have been between Milan and Monaco. The stalemate remains regarding the offer and demand, and Fofana’s will hasn’t changed either.
In fact, Fofana has told Milan – through his entourage – that he’s ready to decline a potential offer from Manchester United after first rejecting West Ham. The Old Trafford side probed the ground with Monaco but are yet to speak with the player, more keen on signing Manuel Ugarte anyway.
Called up or not?
Fofana returned to the Monaco training ground on August 1, following his post-Euros vacation, and he has trained separately from his teammates. This is a clear signal of the situation but, having said that, he could still be called up for the Barcelona friendly tomorrow.
Milan are following the situation from a distance with great interest, knowing that an exclusion from the squad would help their case. Then again, an agreement has already been reached with the player over a four-year contract and there is no doubt on his end.
Monaco remain a tough nut to crack but at €25m, the deal could probably be closed, though Milan believe this is too much still.
The offer and demand
Milan have put an offer of €20m on the table, which is an important figure in their eyes given that the player’s contract expires in 2025. The RedBird-owned club doesn’t intend to go any higher and certainly not close to Monaco’s valuation of €30m.
The tug-of-war remains, as stated, but it’s also a situation that could be unlocked any day. Perhaps on Thursday when Monaco will present their new signing Lamine Camara, given that he was signed to reinforce the midfield.
On that occasion, Monaco’s director Thiago Scuro will also speak and he will surely be asked about the Fofana-Milan links.
Cardoso and Kone
Milan have identified Johnny Cardoso and Manu Kone as alternatives to Fofana, seeing as a midfielder is needed this summer. Especially if you consider that Yacine Adli has an important offer in Qatar, while Ismael Bennacer has expressed a desire to play in Saudi Arabia.
The Rossoneri have already probed the ground for both of these and the price tags are set at €20m each. In other words, they could postpone Fofana’s arrival until the summer of 2025 and change the IBAN of the €20m offer that has been put on the table…
Cardoso now Fofana later – sounds good to me 🇺🇸🇫🇷
Fofana next summer and Andre Trindade now. sounds very good or even better.
No free EU spot left for Trindade. The option only Fofana, Kone, or Cardoso (US with Italian passport)
You mean Brazilian with US and Italian passports.
Cardoso is American by birth- he was born in New Jersey.
His Brazilian parents then went back to Brazil when he was 3 months old, where he trained in Brazilian youth academies, mainly Internacional, making his senior debut there just a few days shy of age 18. In his last season there, 2022, when he was a regular starter, Internacional came close to winning the Brazil Serie A, but ended up in second
So, yeah, he’s way way more Brazilian than American and free of any taint from growing up in the low standards of the MLS and the pay to play American youth system.
He’s been doing extremely well at Betis, enough to draw the interest of a bunch of bigger teams in La Liga and the Bundesliga and other Serie A teams.
That’s not the sort of bidding war that Milan likes to get into, and for that reason alone I doubt that he’s going to end up at Milan, unless for some reason he pushes hard for that move.
Johnny’s stats on fbref show OUTSTANDING defensive work, not much offense. He is actually a far better pure defensive midfielder than Fofana, who has middling to below average defensive stats and great offensive stats, and so actually look like yet another box to box midfielder
So, all you guys dissing Johnny Cardoso, you guys have no idea what you are talking about
Better, and the waiting game is looking like it’s about to chock Monaco, sadly enough once Manuel Ugarte’s deal pull through Monaco would come running to accept our money with whatever conditions attached to the IBAN😁😁😁
Perfect sign cardoso (he’s perfectly in our price range) (kone isn’t good) get fofana next year and it’s all fine (sell bennecar and Adli)
Lmao , and then comes his representatives and ask for 15 mil fee as always 😂😂 only kids can believe that we can bring for free any good player
Agent charging exorbitantly for a free player is reasonable than club charging 35m for a player of 35m MV and also in his last season in the club.
Fofana probably understand Milan management stance, hence, the reason he is ready to reject any other bid and join us for free in the next summer
It is reasonable but based on our experience our menagement for some reason, gets offended when agents ask fee for free players,they always refuse that kind of job. And when he becomes free he will get new offers from teams like M.United with much more sallary offered,so his mind will change fast. Come on man,don’t be silly ,don’t act like you see this first time.He is not 20 years old,he will be 26 next year, last chance to get rich contract.just last year we got “a word” from Thuram and Taremi that they will wait for Milan ,and where did they go?
I wanted to counter your point, but since you think I am “silly”, there is no need. So mate, enjoy
You’re gonna need a tougher skin if you plan on hanging around these threads LOL!!!
That would probably be a historical achievement to win anything with such parameters, the never-raised salary cap, the ceiling of 20M€ for recruits and the hiring of a no-name coach.
I really wonder what is the “vision” of his management besides business and speculate on the future. They were in full support of Pioli, who was threatened of eviction by the previous management, then they sacked him to please the fans only to recruit the most pedestrian coach available, on a short contract. And now this lowball mercato. Wake me up when Camarda will be old enough to drink beer.
This comment is to fill of contradictions it’s actually stunning. The club fired Pioli to please the fans and then hired a manager almost the entire fan base didn’t want? That doesn’t pass the smell teest. They sacked Pioli because his teams had an insane number of injuries, he didn’t win a game for an entire month, and Inzaghi and Inter own him. They hired Fonseca because they think he’s the best fit. Let the team play some games so we can determine if it was a wise move. The early signs are very good.
RedBird’s first window they brought Pulisic, Reijnders and RLC and they were all bang on starter and three of the best players last season. How does that suggest a lack of knowledge or sporting ambition? Matter of fact how does investing more in the club than Berlusconi ever dared by building a new stadium suggest a lack of ambition? Berlusconi spent 145m in 01/02 for transfers, his most ever. The new stadium will cost 451 million alone, with the total project projected to cost ~950 million. There are so many positives with the way the club is operating, recruiting, and playing football(preseason so far). You really have to squint to see the negatives and so it is that is all some people want to see for their own reasons.
Please remind everyone who Berlusconi spent that 140 mill on please when compared to who we have now.
How can you say what Elliot / Redbird are doing as a whole is good?
For example this transfer don’t get the no 1 target you want wait until his contract has run down but in the meantime waste money on someone who isn’t your no 1 target so not considered that good get him only for the following season to bench him? after another season of failure and I take it not even Elliot /Redbird can pay him weekly in make believe money?
If you want to see an inept American management look at Chelsea. Over a billion in transfers with nothing to show for it.
Rui Costa for 41.32M.
Fillipo Inzaghi for 36.15M.
Andrea Pirlo (when he was doing poorly) at 17.04M.
Javi Moreno for 16M.
Massimo Donati for 15M.
Cosmin Contra for 7M.
Umit Davala for 5M.
To be honest, it wasn’t THAT great of a mercato.
Well this management is filled with contradictions. They were all in for Pioli, even asking websites such as SM not to relay negative news about him, then sacked him despite being satisfied with 2nd place.
You’re probably a young Milan fan not to understand that Berlusconi made the club what it is today. None of us around here would be Milan fans if he didn’t invest so much in the club, starting with Gullit, Rijkaard and Van Basten. Jerry just bought one of the most famous football brands in the world, with OPM, with high potential for resale. The money “invested” so far is the budget of the club. Jerry will build a stadium with the budget of the club. He’s only looking for ROI and profit and won’t take any risk on the sporting side not to harm the club value. They’re doing a great job with the brand but the sporting policy and the management PR are terrible.
I’m 40. So yea…
I understand what Berlusconi did. I started watching Milan in the 90s as a kid. Trust me I understand. What I don’t understand is that there is an ownership that is aiming to modernize not just the club but the whole league…finally catching us up with bigger clubs with more spending power, and everybody hates them for really no discernible reason except they won’t drop 50m on transfers.
All roads lead back to Maldini…
^This! 100%
You cannot say they are doing a bad job on sporting side after one season and a second place finish. That’s a totally disingenuous argument to make.
It’s your opinion we don’t see anything from Redbird all we see is clowns controlling our great club and talking nonsense future and bla bla bla
One season. Second place finish. Building a new stadium. Yea, absolute trash.
hahaha Even Steve Wonder can see this club is on an upward trajectory…
Yeah on the brand value. It’s definitely my point, this is business only. On the sporting side we are stagnating, at best, after two seasons with a Scudetto and UCL semifinals. And an unambitious mercato so far. Go to San Siro attend a game or walk every day in Milan seeing Inter flags at the windows and tell me that what fans want is a stadium with a theme park and a nice budget.
Did you just say they have invested more than Berlusconi.
The mighty Berlusconi whose investments brought 29 trophies, and increased the outlook of this historic club to even greater heights.
Good Gatsby man. That is a blasphemy of epic proportions.
Yet this owner or the one before him has not yet given us even one tenth of that trophy haul.
Nah man you lost the plot.
Will you give it a rest if they do achieve that “historical achievement”?
Monaco doesn’t have any leverage. He wants milan and we want him. Only solution is for Monaco to accept a fair offer or risk losing him for free in Jan when we start negotiating. This is precisely what the management were pushing for. Hope he joins now as he & bennacer would be a great double pivot.
“Monaco doesn’t have any leverage.”
And perhaps neither do we.
Maybe Monaco doesn’t care all that much about losing him for free and for them it’s either selling him for what they consider to be a fair price or make use of him for the 2024/25 season.
And it’s not like Fofana can’t change his mind about “only wanting Milan”.
It’s about time for us to make a bid for Cardoso or Florentino.
I mean free works for us. Don’t see the advantage for Monaco though.
We need a DM right now, not next winter.
As for free, it will be another bid altogher, since his argent will ask for more money, Fofana himself might ask for a higher wage,… So even this whole “we’re gonna have Fofana anyways” isn’t sure.
Then we can shop elsewhere. It doesn’t behoove anyone to take 0 instead of 20 millions
Florentino hhh we can’t afford 35ml let alone 70ml don’t forget we become mid tier club
My favorite emoji 🤡🤡🤡
Many fans in this forum makes it look like the red bird hasn’t done anything good since their inception 🙄🙄
Bunch of hypocrites
People who are not in touch with reality. The world is different now than when Berlusconi saw the club. The truth is that other clubs changed with the times and continued to grow and Berlusconi never did. Milan are 10-20 hers behind EPL and clubs like Bayern, PSG etc….
Stick around. You’ll see all sorts of “interesting” takes here.
Just give them Adli + 10 mil , it’s more than enough ,they gets money and replacment player for their sh*ty league
we need cardoso i dont get why milan wants kone he isnt that good cardoso is a real dm to
Again, I think if we pivot and bring another DM in now, we can add Fofana for free next season. 2-for-1 special.
How do we know that next summer he will only want to sign for us as a free agent, because I know lots of other really good teams are gonna want him