Every now and again, a story emerges about a regret that AC Milan have when it comes to transfers that never happened.
The latest one concerns Enzo Fernandez, a key figure in the Argentina team that reached the World Cup final and one of the strongest midfielders on the international scene. He was really close to wearing the Milan shirt in the summer of 2022, as MilanVibes reveal.
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Enzo to Milan: The background
Before his definitive breakthrough with Benfica and his record-breaking transfer to Chelsea after the World Cup in Qatar, the Argentine talent had been in the sights of the then-management team of Paolo Maldini and Frederic Massara.
An agreement with the player had practically been reached, but the deal fell through due to River Plate’s financial demands and problems with the agency that owned his rights. According to what later emerged, Enzo had given his approval to joining Milan too, but the costs stopped everything.
River Plate demanded immediate payment of a clause of approximately €18m for 75% of his contract, a figure that could have risen to €23m. A solution of €12m plus €8m in bonuses was also proposed through intermediaries.
Milan were carefully managing their summer budget, and the management were unhappy with the idea of investing a sum without full control of his rights. So, they preferred to concentrate their investments on Charles De Ketelaere, considered the absolute priority at the time.
After failing to land in Italy, the current Blues captain immediately moved to Benfica, where it took just a few months to establish himself as one of the best midfielders in Europe. Then, after doing well in the last World Cup, he earned a €127m move to Chelsea, and the rest is history.
Enzo is proving his worth even in the current World Cup. The 25-year-old was a key player in Argentina’s run to the final, netting the equaliser in the semi-final against England, assisted by Lionel Messi in the dying minutes. He is being linked with Real Madrid now, and is out of sight for Milan.
And Alvarez… c’est la vie!
Hahahaha wont mention that his agent basically said that Maldini stopped talking to him will you?
The deep attraction M&M had for CDK that summer was odd…
Maybe budget and intervention from agent / owner that forced maldini & co buy CdK
he is a troll bot…
CDK score in world cup? how many times with belgium, a weaker team than Argentina?
Some people just laughed at something didn’t work out, but totally ignored the greater success.
He is not a fan.. maybe a chat bot?? lmao
This A$$ clown again dejan10 LOL. Always looking to blame Maldini. What a loser. Read kid and remember the facts. No budget from our trash owners. Penny pinching over every fkn transfer. Wake up son or better yet go back to bed
No worries, we got Aster Vranckx instead LOL
Enzo Fernandez, Caisedo, Manu Kone, Olise,
the list of great or world class players we (‘ve) missed out on just goes on and on. In (smaller) addition to that, Botman and renato sanchez (traitor), good job there too, and don’t you ever forget what happened with Tevez (and Eriksen), nevermind kondogbia and (jackson) martinez. Those 2 weren’t exactly stellar players but still.
Perhaps the management(s) shouldn’t be blamed for renato (d glass boy) and martinez, I don’t remember
all the details since it’s been a while, the fact is that a very bitter taste remained regardless…
The management should tattoo the famous “No regerts” -ink on their arms due to this.
Lol we back at this again? It’s so reactionary. Because X player makes the World Cup final (never mind club football), let’s draw online from player to past regret/transfer. Hope they can post this same thing when Enzo gets skinned by Adeyemi in the UCL again. Smh 🙄. We can look at value both ways. If that had happened with him at our club, he’d be crucified and question the 18m transfer.
As much as Enzo Fernández is certainly better than most if all of our current midfielders, it’s easy to dig a story from 2022 and say we should’ve signed him then.
Would he have developped as well had he played with us ? Could we have used him properly ? Or just burn him like we did to so many players.
I’m not defeding M&M here, their 2022 summer was atrocious, but hindsight is 20/20.
Also, Enzo was sold to Benfica for 44M€. We spent 2 monthes arguing with Brugges only to get Charles for 37M€.
Some folk with the “milan shirt avatar” is really funny
brings up CDK again.. lol
Some people just laughed at something didn’t work out at the moment, but totally ignored the greater success.
Is he one of Redbird bot? lol DeJAN
Enzo Fernandez’s career would have been over for sure.
For a long time now, Milan have become a bless where promising players go and then stay stagnant, loose value and ruin their careers.