AC Milan are one of the clubs keeping an eye on Issa Doumbia, who is continuing to make a name for himself at Venezia.
Calciomercato.com write that in Venezia’s long pursuit of a return to Serie A, there’s one player whose performances are giving Giovanni Stroppa a huge boost. That player is Doumbia, who operates as the central lynchpin in a 3-5-2 formation.
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With 34 appearances, eight goals and five assists to his name, he has begun to turn heads. Despite a long contract expiring in 2029, he’s in the sights of at least five top clubs.
One for the future
Doumbia has already made waves with the Italian youth national teams too, with the 22-year-old being called up to the U21 squad twice already. He has made three appearances, including one in the draw against Spain at the U21 European Championships in June 2025.
Doumbia himself described the call as a dream, literally, since he was asleep at the time: “When I received the call informing me of the call-up, I was asleep. I thought it was a joke, then obviously I realised it wasn’t.”
Doumbia is a midfielder who can easily fill any midfield role, with his size and his technique. He ranges from a deep-lying regista – as Stroppa has been using him lately – to a goal-scoring mezzala (his preferred position) or even a physical attacking midfielder behind the strikers.
His role model has always been Paul Pogba, as he revealed: “My father instilled in me the idea of football as a reference, but I take inspiration from Pogba. Physical strength and running are my strengths, and if I had to choose an ideal role, I’d say right midfielder in a three-man midfield.”
After winter interest from clubs like Club Brugge and Paris FC, Doumbia has now found himself in the sights of even bigger clubs. In Serie A, Inter, Milan, Roma and Napoli are interested.
According to Record, he’s Sporting CP’s main summer target. The Lisbon club will lose Morita to the Premier League and are looking to replicate the Morten Hjulmand signing from Lecce.
Given the talk about Youssouf Fofana potentially being sold in the summer window, it is possible that the Rossoneri could move for another midfielder. That being said, the links to Leon Goretzka have been more frequent and concrete.
He is a good strong player,if the management can get him, and add him to the youngsters we have,then it’s good, for next season the club should allow all the new young players,and the ones out on loan to report by the 1st of July to begin person with the club, let the coach and club watch and see them properly before making any decision…
You’re right
yep. It’s exciting and frustrating. We are loading up on very talented young players. BUT we either let them play OR also get proper reinforcements. For example, we got Kostic. So now, we have Camarda and Kostic. That’s great, looks amazingly promising. BUT for next season we got nothing. Either we do a Barcelona and put the kids to play (Bartesaghi is a good example) and suffer their growing pains, or get proper ready-made reinforcements. because what i see happening is we get all these kids for peanuts, loan them, then sell them for 5-10M . We get the worst of both worlds. We make profit but not enough to make it worth reinvesting (like a Porto, Benfica, Atalanta) and we dont improve a lot because we dont let them play on our team
Exactly 💯