Emerson Royal has already reached a verbal agreement with AC Milan over personal terms, a report claims, and now the club are negotiating with Spurs to try and agree a price.
As this morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes, there are ‘no smoke signals’ from Emerson Royal regarding the potential move as was interviewed on the YouTube channel of André Hernan, confirming Milan are in talks and strongly implying his desire to move.
Seeking redemption
Emerson Royal is a man looking for a bounce back season. In the last Premier League campaign he almost halved his starting appearances with Tottenham, from 20 to 11, and with all due respect to London he would move to Italy.
He ‘evidently considers Milan superior to Tottenham’ and for this reason he has already reached an agreement in principle over the contract he would sign, meaning that the salary wouldn’t be a problem.
If anything, for him, there are two problems at the moment. One seems surmountable: the agreement between Milan and Tottenham. Spurs are asking for a bit more than €20m, Milan want to close with a 1 as the first figure but it doesn’t seem like a headache. Shaking hands around €18m is possible.
Rather, it remains to be understood what Milan will decide because the club have evaluated and continue to evaluate various profiles and they have to make a decision. To simplify, Royal is not the only right-back in the race.
His story
Emerson is waiting and keeping his head down (net of his public declarations) while waiting for developments. He grew up in the favela of Ermelino Matarazzo, in Sao Paulo, but from there he managed to make it to the Brazilian national team.
“I have always believed in my dreams,” he said one day. He believed in it by leaning on God, who he often cited, even in one of the most terrible moments of life. In 2022 a man in Brazil attempted to rob him and pointed a gun at him.
It ended well, also thanks to the intervention of a policeman, but that gun fired several times that day and yes, the day could have been tragic for him and those around him.
The player
The 25-year-old is not always considered reliable from a physical point of view but he undeniably works hard on this aspect, even taking unusual paths.
When Antonio Conte arrived at Tottenham, he spent €1m to strengthen himself, bought a hyperbaric chamber, hired a mental coach and a neuroscientist to help him perform better.
What would he bring to Milan? He gets forward, he brings added physicality and of course experience. Tactically Emerson can push wide but with Tottenham he often occupied more central areas.
