This evening, while AC Milan get their league season underway against Bologna, Marco Pellegrino’s adventure with the Rossoneri will begin.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) report this morning, the young Argentine central defender will arrive at Linate Airport late in the evening and will undergo medical tests tomorrow morning, before signing his contract at Casa Milan.
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Pellegrino’s signing will take the number up to nine for the summer after a €3.5m deal was agreed with Club Atletico Platense which also has €2m in further potential bonuses and a 10% resale clause.
Milan chose to invest in a profile for the future just like they did with Pierre Kalulu, who was signed as a free agent in 2020 from Lyon’s youth side and became one of the protagonists of the 2021-22 Scudetto win.
Malick Thiaw is another example of the Rossoneri’s strategy given he cost €7m when he arrived from Schalke 04 and is now a starter alongside Fikayo Tomori, who himself serves as a symbol of what investing in defenders can bring.
Who is Pellegrino? He turned 21 just a month ago, he is a left-sided central defender and he is expected to take the No.31 shirt he wore at Platense. He is a pure centre-back, very physical, skilled in aerial play and endowed with aggression.
Martin Palermo, former Boca Juniors star and his coach at Platense said: “He is also precious in restarting build-up play.” This should be very useful for what Pioli wants.
Pellegrino will be the only left-footed player among Pioli’s centre-back ranks, and it was with that foot that he scored his first goal back on 30 July against Gimnasia.
Just four months earlier, on 14 March, he had made his first-team debut and has since become a regular, with 17 appearances accrued in the current campaign.
He idolises Sergio Ramos. In his first interviews after emerging at Platense he spoke about achieving survival – they finished 17th last season – but his ambitions were already clear: “I’d like to go and play in Europe, that’s my goal.”
Now, he has achieved a dream. Javier Mascherano – the coach of Argentina’s U23 side – is watching him. With his impact in Serie A, it cannot be ruled out that Luciano Spalletti doesn’t take a look at him for the Italian national team, given he has an Italian passport.
He seems very promising and a left footed CB. A smart move by management. Now I do hope he has chances to play.
Are we going to win anything or just gamble with youngsters untill we exit from holy fourth spot in serie a…?
So for you it is better we signed nobody? Lol
He is also good player too when you like..?
we got thiago silva with this move. if he didnt workout we can sell him same price, EU + italian. Its a good move.
Nice! So glad we got another italian in here. Oh wait…. was fooled by the last name…
I prayed pioli dont waste this young talent with his rubbish idea of “a player is not ready” ,hope milan will not regret selling those young players when pioli is finally sack… Pioli is’nt a good coach due to his poor decision,especially his horrible substitutions that later ruin the game….
Won’t really know what we got until two of Tomori, Thiaw, Kjaer or Kalulu gets injured.
Fact.
Or one of them plays so poorly that he has to try him
Does anyone know how good he is or seen him play that can describe that in detail. He ain’t playing until two complete sets of centre backs get injured. Also, I guess Simic wasn’t ready or else we wouldn’t buy him lol 😂 take that comments section
I don’t think it really matters how good he is, the most important thing is that the directors have looked busy…..
LMAO 😂