GdS: Milan slap €100m price tag on Leao and eye potential replacement

By Isak Möller -

AC Milan are very keen on renewing the contract of Rafael Leao but the recent struggles in the league haven’t made the situation easier. As such, the Rossoneri are also planning for the worst-case scenario, which is selling him.

Negotiations between the parties have been ongoing for quite some time but they are yet to reach an agreement on the figures. Milan are willing to offer around €6m per year but it remains to be seen if this will be enough to convince Leao.

According to Gazzetta Dello Sport, Milan have slapped a €100m price tag on Leao which they will refer to in case they fail to renew the contract ahead of the summer. They won’t go below this figure, having turned down €120m from Chelsea immediately last year.

One of the potential replacements is Noa Lang. The Dutchman has been linked with a move to Milan before and since he still plays for Club Brugge, the cost would not be outrageous. In fact, it would cost €20-30m for the Rossoneri.

The rest of the money could then be invested in other departments, but Milan might also need to sign a striker.

Tags AC Milan Noa Lang Rafael Leao

30 Comments

  1. Yes !
    It might have been mistake not selling for 120 mil but there is still time.
    We managed to pass group stage, so that afforded some money.
    Point is, there must be deadline for player to say his final answer. 1 and a half or 1 year before contract expires, player must decide.
    It will be fine for Milan to sell Leao even for 70 mil€ just to capital gain, and reinvest in new left winger, striker, midfielder and right winger. That’s 4 players. So for example owner approve 50 mil € again, and sell Leao for 70 mil€, that’s 120 mil€ available for transfers.
    Pulisic can be bought for 20 mil, Lang for 30 mil, Keita for free, Okeford- maybe 30 mil€ , and still there is 40 mil € space to reinvest on some other players as well.
    You get good first team and excellent rotation, and possibility for better results.
    Just sell!! Leao happy with money and club happy with everything else.

    1. 3/4 of your transfers are persons who are currently underperforming, Pulisic, Lang and Keita. It is not worth replacing a player who as 8 goals and 5 assists for 3 trash players. Just let Maldini cook.

      1. I agree with urban king, Leao is worth more than these 3. Okafor looks good, Pulisic trash, as mentally weak as it gets, one week he is Messi and the next 3 months he is useless. Keita – I though he retired due to injury, he is almost like having half of 1 player but we will sign him because he is free. Lang has been bad in Belgium this year, don’t see why would Milan go for him but ok.

        1. Bravo, Lang is better than okafor, I will prefer chaka than this two players, Diaz is one of the biggest problems in the squad people sadly noticed, he think is Messi of Milan he doesn’know his strong foot when shoot, he hardly play with the team as the attacking midfielder, his aim is more than his position and his ability, the only attacking midfielder that always aiming to score more than assist, please compare him with I. Success of udenise statistically ever in every seasons who’s more better, this guy can never improve again only will small team. but Pioli choose him first, I will appreciate this young Atlanta guy R.Hojlund #xavi of PSV and kante on loan, okoli or lamino of Atlanta, j. Vasquez of cromonese.

      2. That 8 goals and 5 assists bring us only to pass group stage in champions league. And the club is now on position to lose champions league spot.
        So it is enough for Keita to score 1 goal and 1 assist, with combination of Pulisic score only 3 goals and 2 assists, and Lang 4 goals and 2 assists, to have same statistics like Leao. All these three mentioned players can achieve that.
        And still you have three players. That’s bugger rotation and “your eggs are not in the same basket”.
        Put everything in the hand of one player is like you put all eggs in the same basket. When that basket fell down you lose all eggs.
        If Leao had doubled statistics that you write, then possibility would be to invest only in him, and only on 1 player. Than club would have stronger results. But we don’t have that situation.
        Leao obviously forget who bring him on current status and now club must put themselves on front page and If Leao is unhappy he must leave.

        1. Aston Villa did the same thing to replace jack grealish when they sell him for 115 million by signing leon bailey, buendia and later couthino. All of them combined was not enough to replace grealish’s numbers. Keita and Pulisic are more injury prone than rebic so I dont see how they would have a higher goal contribution than rebic.

          1. OK, so buy 3 other different players. Maldini waited for Renato Sanches and Rafael Leao so long that we lost Kvicha and Enzo who are far more better players today. If Leao don’t sign, he must be first ac player who will be sold.

    2. “70 mil€ just to capital gain, and reinvest in new left winger, striker, midfielder and right winger.”

      So… 70M€ for 4 players? That’ll get us… Roughly a 4 primavera-players with zero Serie A experience or a few youngsters from the French Ligue 2.

  2. It would be a massive coup if someone bid 100M on him this summer. As things stand, I am not sure if Chelsea would be back, having bought dozens of players already. Man City would be distracted by the recent investigation. United doesn’t need him, and so is Liverpool. I doubt Spurs is interested. That leaves Arsenal (though they also have Martinelli who is blossoming this season) and possibly Newcastle if they could secure CL.

    Outside PL, Real, Barca and PSG should be well covered in that position, Bayern usually only spend big for ONE player per season, I don’t follow them much tbh, so unsure what kind of profile they’re after.

    So, who might bid 100M knowing that they might as well wait for another year to get him for free?

    1. Good point but Inter had offer from PSG for Skriniar 50 mil€ 1 year before and Inter rejected. So if Milan officially put Leao for sale for 100 mil€ , there might be some clubs who would bid for Leao. At the end if management sold Leao for 70 mil€, is still profit. Club lost 50 mil€ from Chelsea first bid, but gave opportunity to player and for themselves to resolves new contract.
      It is better to sell for something rather for nothing. And Leao looks like he is not happy anymore at the club.

    2. Precisely. 100m is a pipe dream. Selling a player for max value one year from the end of their contract is a pipe dream. They should have taken the 120m, which would have been a record sale for Milan. And given your accurate analysis of the probably landscape this summer we’ll be lucky to get even 70m. My guess is more like 50-60m IF there is a bid at all. But I’ll take that over nothing. Honestly, what will probably happen is that there will be no serious interest for the reasons you mentioned and Leao will continue to refuse to extend, so that in one year we lose him for free. My confidence that management will get this right is low.

  3. I always said the solution is not to give wage increase to mediocre players like Giroud and save the money for players like Leao. We are paying both Giroud and Origi and if you removed them there is more than what Leao is asking. You can get a few younger players with less wages to have the same impact like Origi in total, and like Giroud on the field. Outside the actual game Giroud is more useful than as a player, due to his experience which can help younger players…

    1. Mediocre players like Giroud?
      Is that the same Giroud that has come in clutch and showed up in almost all the big games the last year and a half, unlike the “Great Leao” who almost never shows up in big games or when he is needed the most. Even vs Torino he was again MIA.
      Leao has a good game once a month and usually against the bottom of the table club.
      Just few numbers:
      This year, Giroud has 7 goals, 4 assists in serie A , Leao has 8 g 5 a,
      Champions league, Giroud 4 g 2 a. Leao 1g 2a.
      Even last season Giroud had 11 g 3 a, while the weakest MVP in serie A history had 11 g and 10 assists.
      Giroud is old and Milan needs an upgrade, but calling him mediocre to uplift Leao even though the guy at 36 has better numbers than a supposed 100 mil player is crazy.
      Milan never received an offer anywhere near 100 mil for Leao when he came off the best season of his career with 2 years left on his contract, what makes anyone think that someone will offer that with a year left on his contract and being bad on the field to a point that he is getting benched?

      1. Which Giroud? Dude, he is mediocre, he has horrible pass accuracy, missplaces most of chances and is a certified benchwarmer for a reason, you think he was sitting on the bench because he was good? You are looking at stats while forgetting that Leao created most of Girouds goals last season. Literally most of them. He won the title alone, if you didn’t see how bad the rest of Milan was attacking I don’t know are you watching the same club and sport as do I? He was exactly like that against Torino as well, horrible, goal saved him from a under 5 rating. That is a fact, he was horrible. Anyone would be an upgrade, anyone over 190cm and with some first team experience, you can’t do much worse at Milan. If you want to say he is ok for 36, I’d say that Ibrahimović showed that he isn’t really. Ibrahimović has 1 goal per 2 matches if I am not wrong, since coming back to Milan at 40 years of age. Giroud is a mediocre striker who couldn’t score 200 goals in his 18 years of career. Do the math, his average in club league football is around 10 goals per season. And he is doing that and you are talking about someone being great, he never was…
        But I don’t mind having him at Milan, he seems like a good guy, I don’t have anything against him outside of him being the first striker and getting a PAYRISE at 36. I mean, he can play at Milan or leave for Everton, or Galatasaray maybe. I would tell him you are free to leave and play some mumbo jumbo league or stay here for the same money and win titles and play Champions league. Easy.

        1. First of all I never said Giroud is great, I just don’t agree with you saying that he is mediocre.
          I don’t care what Giroud did at other clubs. Look at the numbers. His and Leao’s numbers are close. So if you call Giroud at 36 mediocre with those numbers, what is leao at age 23 with similar numbers?
          And, most of the criticism towards Leao from the non fan boys comes because of statements :Leao won us the title by himself ” by his fanboys.
          It’s not true and is disrespectful towards the rest of the team. Milan won the title because they played as a team, not because of one player with pedestrian g/a contributions.

          1. There is also a difference between creating a goal on your own or getting the 3rd good cross in. Leao also needs to improve but he did much more than his goals and assists last year because he was unstoppable, much more goals are his work, he just didn’t give the final pass. Giroud isn’t a player like that, if he won most headers and actually passed at least half of them towards other players I would consider that, but he doesn’t…that is the problem, if he isn’t good enough for build up play and doesn’t score enough for me is a mediocre attacker…I understand he is 36 but articles about him are way over the top and I don’t see a reason to increase his wages, wrong move.

          2. “There is also a difference between creating a goal on your own”

            You mean like the goal Giroud scored against Inter last season where he made a fool out of the Inter-defense? Indeed, very good example.

    2. “I always said the solution is not to give wage increase to mediocre players like Giroud”

      Well… All I can say is that it’s a very good thing that your sayings don’t mean ****.

    3. Giroud underated striker but not mediocre. He won champion league,world cup and league. Last season his goals are crucial versus big team that give AC Milan points in scudetto race. Yes he is old but he only receive 4m euro / years that below everton offer him this season for moving to everton but he reject that offer ( everton offer 7m euro/ years). His experience & attitude are good for AC Milan young player. If it is me DS ,i will choose renew giroud 1 more years and sell leao in summer for 70-80m euro and bring young talented left winger that cost 20-30m euro & reinforce right winger or right back for the rest of money

  4. Keep saying it but depending on what happens with them, I’d send him to city with Alvarez and money coming back. Alvarez is 50-60m player, they can give us 40 and we get Lang or Okafor.

    Or we can do a straight swap with PSG for Mbappe 😂

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