AC Milan and Leeds United have agreed a deal that will see Noah Okafor move to the Premier League side.
It has been an interesting summer for Okafor, who was actually Milan’s top scorer in their preseason friendly campaign, scoring a brace against Liverpool in Hong Kong and then another double against Perth Glory.
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This led to reports stating he had forced the management to pause their plans to sell him, but then in the past few days Leeds accelerated for the Swiss international, and now they have got the deal over the line.
Okafor to Leeds: Here we go
Now, Fabrizio Romano has written: “Noah Okafor to Leeds United, here we go! Deal in place as revealed last night for fee over €20m to AC Milan.
“Okafor set to sign four year contract with option for further season, ready for PL move after Daniel Farke’s calls. Travel for medical scheduled in next 24h.”
His colleague Matteo Moretto confirms that Leeds has already scheduled medical examinations for Okafor pending the exchange of documents with Milan.
The player is ready to fly to England within the next 48 hours. The overall figure of the operation slightly exceeds €20m, including bonuses.
Okafor signed for Milan from Red Bull Salzburg in the 2023 summer transfer window, and he will depart with 54 appearances in the red and black to his name, with seven goals and five assists. Funnily enough, those are the exact same numbers he had with FC Basel.
Milan supporter for over 35 years. I understand the concept as an Italian team you want more Italian players, bought and played. But primary I want to win, go back to glory days. And this trade window we did some highly impressive work in the market especially from sales point of view. We are close to 200m in sales if I’m not mistaken? We sold thiaw for stunning 40m, oka for 21, reijnders for not enough, but who knows, but sales wise we did well. Of course benny and aldi, and let’s not forget musah would have been super to had sold but you can’t have it all. Get us ONE solid striker to link up with gimenez and fill out some of the holes and we should at least get within CL this season. I think we are progressing and I would definitely lock in Mike. That is my main priority right now. He is a top 5 goalie in the world when fit.
I agree. As much I hate with the owner. Milan transfer window was the best in even last few years. I hope they can do something for upgrade what they need and hopefully secure top 4 minimum.
Remember that you don’t need as many.players in the squad if you’re not in Europe.
It makes it seem better because we have the ability to shed players and not to have to bring many in.
I understand the concept as an Italian team you want more Italian players, bought and played…. Name how this management has Italianized Milan as they claim before the transfer kick off.
They can’t even get Leoni in the book.
Name one top class Italian player, and if you have a team of only Italians, you won’t win anything. I’m sorry to say.
I understand that if they want to sign top talent, they bring non-italian players, like they signed Modric or Jashari (assuming he is top talent).
But looking at guys like De Winter or Athekame? All I see is young folk with some potential, that IF they develop well, they will be good players. That’s not guarantee of anything, and there are dozens of players with potential within Italy.
Instead of these 2 foreigners, we could have had 2 young Italians with potential.
Unfortunately, since Italy put caps on foreigners it went all down. Italians with no comoetition are not developing and as a result no more jewels. EPL has learned a thi g or two from Italy glory days and you can see the difference.
We did buy the ine decent player Ricci, i would have given my vote for Califlori but you can buy 2 top players for his price. Such is the reality.
Make Serie A free like it was and you will not only get top Italian players biy also allow the league to go back to glory days.
Good business from Tare, we are offloading our flops with capital gains , something we didn’t see in a long time. No more meaningless free loans . This deal and the sale of Emerson Royale are masterpieces !
Please sign Moise Kean
Since we technically upped our summer budget by around 20M€ (give or take some change I guess), maybe we should aim for a better striker/deal than a “single season wonderkid”who barely reached once double digits goals in a league and who frankly isn’t even eager to leave Manchester and join us.
Tare’s Masterclass. And also Allegri, using him in pre season to polish and attract suitor. Nice one Allegri
Now we need Chukwueze and Musah to score hattricks!
They are banking on Leaos injury being very minimal. If Leao is out for long and now Okafor is gone, we will be very light up front for the next few league games. We need replacements asap!
Pulisic and jimenez can be left wings, Chuck on the right. We need 1 striker and 1 CB. No need to replace Okafor. Good luck to him, I like him but we need higher profile players.
This probably means they have a striker done and coming.
Need to get a winger ASAP. They should fight juventus for Edon Zhegrova of Lille. Has only 1 year left on his contract. We already missed out on jonathan david of lille. On a free transfer. We should beat juventus on this one.
Next season probably maybe leao + pulisic. Here we go !
Sorry the American one it’s not for sale. Pulisic was the one important figure to cardinale campaign for Americanism 😀😆
Sorry the American one it’s not for sale. Pulisic was the one important figure tp cardinale campaign for Americanism
I would’ve prefered CHukweze out instead of Okafor, but that’s life. Offload Musa and Chukweze, and go for a solid Winger.
Again fans cheering more instability and profit.
Okafor is an ideal backup for Leao. Chucky does not fit the system and is a worse player.
Just like in midfield it should be Musah and RLC sold not Tiji
At this point we could have bought Sesko
You cannot sell if there is no buyer. No club want to buy chukwu & RLC because their salary 4m euro nett. . Puli & saladmaker will cover both winger ( both can play LW & RW) . Sesko price are too high for italian club and not available on loan
That sounds like weak excuses.
There are plenty of teams in EPL who would be happy to have RLC as an experienced player, like Leeds.
Chucky was almost sold in Jan.
We found a buyer for Emerson, the worst player ever!
Agreed, the RedBird lovers are okay with all this turnover just before the season starts.
How is it turnover if Okafor already played at Napoli last season? Not to mention he managed to get into only 4 games there…
Turnover is for the entire squad and how we sell sell sell every summer. There’s no stability. But, keep defending RedBird and their 8th place finish.
Ehhh. Okafor is a good penalty box finisher but doesn’t do much in terms of creation. Chuky does a better job of pulling defenders out of position and creating his own shot or opportunities for others. 20m for Okafor is a steal all day.
Chucky can only use one foot. He should be playing amateur leagues
The only way this sale is beneficial is if the funds are added to bring in a CF or a better CB. Leao’s back up is Puli on that side while on the RT you can slot in Salad or Chuk.
Okafor was always a bench player. 20mil for a bench player is a good return.
I see SJF and Kaka continue their hate based bromance but I guess misery loves company. I must admit it’s cute how you guys almost complete each other’s sentences 😂
Well no choice to sell him because chukwu still on squad and get 4m euro nett. Chukwu will play RW on 433 and puli will cover both wing, while on 352 chukwu will sit on bench , okafor are surplus due to chukwu not getting buyer
According football Italia news, okafor replacement was Mario stroeykens from Anderlecht. His value was 10m.
surely Chiesa is a better fit
Please make every effort to bring Kessie back!
Which one of our nice new midfielders would you bench? Modric (legend), Ricci (promising young Italian) or Jashari (35M transfer saga)?
Incredible we got that much for him but I really liked him as a sub for both wings (though primarily for Leao). It’s very hard to get good subs these days. And i fear this removes a bit of team Chem. That’s alot of changes now….and that didn’t work well the last we had so many changes. Our season starts in a few days 😐
Yep and Leao is now confirmed to be out
What wings? We play 3-5-2, we’ve been playing 3-5-2 since Allegri’s first match and will continue to play 3-5-2 until he leaves. We need four forwards for this formation. Leao, Pulisic, Gimenez and “new striker”. Okafor and Chukwueze are both on the block, and no replacement is necessary.
Wings meaning both Leao and Puli. Even in the 352 or 532 for that matter the interpretation can be manifested with wingplay. Plays are still being built up from the wings…they don’t go away even in a 352. Either way, Okafor is still a very good backup for Leao even in the SS role Leao seem to be playing now. He’s versatile enough and has been a pretty decent asset off the bench. My only issue really is his injury record/availability.
There’s a lot I can say about Okafor, but all in all, I think this transfer is for the best.
Why I’m peeved about is the sale of Reijnders. Could we have kept him, or was the player’s own will a factor.? But we definitely could have gotten at least 10 mil more for him.
I wish Ok4 the very best
I don’t celebrate until I see Okafor making his first training session. Don’t forget the Here We Go to Leipzig.
Great deal. Truth is, Okafor never impressed in Milan. All he did is scored few goals here and there, I can’t even recall him having a full 90-min good game, not to even mention good time period of few games. He just had moments, that’s all.
We will never hear about him, he is not going to make a run for Ballon dOr, don’t worry. Leeds is about his level and that’s all he can reach for. Good luck and adios.