Christopher Nkunku’s departure from AC Milan just one season after his big-money move is now increasing in possibility again.
Nkunku was the subject of a lot of transfer speculation in January, and Calciomercato.com report that he will once again be in the headlines ahead of June. The club have decided to listen to offers for him, aiming to cash in on his sale just a year after signing him.
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A message from Max
Massimiliano Allegri has been quite clear in recent weeks: the former Paris Saint-Germain player is not a first-choice forward, sitting behind Rafael Leao and Christian Pulisic in the pecking order. Now that Santiago Gimenez has returned, his playing time risks shrinking even further.
Between now and the end of May, he risks playing sparingly, and it’s no coincidence that Didier Deschamps has chosen not to consider him for France’s upcoming friendly matches against Brazil and Colombia.
Nkunku’s past speaks of a star player: with RB Leipzig, he made 172 appearances and scored 70 goals, winning two German Cups and the 2022-23 Bundesliga top scorer title. With Chelsea, he amassed 62 appearances and 18 goals, winning the Conference League and the 2025 Club World Cup.
At Milan, he has just six goals and three assists in 27 matches. He hasn’t started in Serie A since February 18, a 1-1 home draw against Como. Since then, he has played five minutes vs. Parma, 12 minutes vs. Cremonese, six minutes vs. Inter, 23 minutes vs. Lazio and 20 minutes vs. Torino.
Nkunku arrived at Milan in August 2025, having spent €37m plus €5m in bonuses to acquire him from Chelsea. The PSG youth product has a gross annual salary of €9.25m, and his total cost, including his annual fee (€7.4m) and salary, is €16.65m.
To avoid a capital loss, Nkunku must be sold for around €30m, but where to? In January, Domenico Tedesco’s Fenerbahçe – the coach who previously had him firing at Leipzig – targeted Nkunku, but the two clubs failed to reach an agreement.
This summer, the Istanbul club could return to the fray, though anyone interested would certainly have to budget for €35m. A move to the Saudi Pro League hasn’t been ruled out, while there’s been no confirmation on the possible interest of Roma.
Those wages are absolutely insane. Especially when compared to others on this team. The fact that they haven’t signed others in the past or lost good players over wages makes this purchase one of the worst in furlani’s tenure.
The keyword is “the past”; a different financial year means different parameters and now a different ownership structure with the loan being held by a different entity. This is such a disingenuous comment. Furlani may be the bad guy in your eyes but at least make a fair criticism and not build one on lies.
lol what? Define disingenuous? Like I mentioned below, Milan are paying WAY more for Nkunku with taxes included. Money is difficult I know and numbers are even more confusing, I get it. MAYBE you can argue that the club was willing to throw around some money but we all know that Furlani chose that player AGAINST Allegri’s wishes, so idk who you think is making purchasing choices right now but it isn’t Cardinale lol. It’s still Furlani, the structure of the club is relatively the same since the transition nothing changed but the papers and debt. Furlani still makes the financial choices for players and their contracts, what are you even talking about. and to come so aggressive toward me, if you have real evidence against that please share it, I more than welcome it.
What do you mean by insane? His net pay is 5 M€, which is the same as Rabiot, Leao and Maignan with less max bonus possibility than the last two.
That’s at the max but within Milan’s salary cap. Of course you can argue that he’s overpaid compared to what he delivers but it’s hardly “insane”.
Also, Milan has not lost a single good player that was willing to sign a contract within the salary cap. Yes, Milan have lost good played but that wasn’t because they were not willing to offer them a salary of at least 5M€ net.
Ok so you didn’t read the article or do any real research. Leaos gross annual salary is 6.41 while Nkunku’s is 9.25. Yes Nkunku and Leao basically have the same take home pay AFTER taxes but Milan are still shelling out 4 million MORE for Nkunku than Leao. PLUS Nkunkus bonuses are higher (although he probably won’t trigger any of those). I really hope you guys don’t have accounting jobs or in charge of anyones financials…sheesh. You get so aggressive with very little knowledge. You could be kinder about it but what evs.
EDIT: 2nd read on DC’s comment, I get where you’re coming from although I disagree and I really meant the first comment above was more aggressive not yours, my bad. I misread that thought you were calling me insane.
Sorry. Read this response now and yes no hard feelings ;).
You probably won’t read this. Can’t really understand what was so aggressive about my comment. I just don’t see how you can call his salary insane as it’s within the salary cap.
Anyhow, the reason Leao’s gross is lower is due to him falling under the old growth degree tax rules. So his gross is a special case and can’t be applied to any new signings.
So at least in my view it’s not a fair comparison. The net is what matters to players and for any new signings with a net of 5M€, the gross would be the same as for Nkunku.
My point was that is that his salary can hardly be called insane, it’s exactly what was reasonable when he was signed.
Of course you can argue that he’s not worth the money which and that Milan should have spent it on someone else, which is probably right. But that’s not the same argument at all, as his salary is exactly what was expected when Milan decided to go for him.
And, yes I do have a background in accounting and have a very strong understanding of how this works. So thanks for asking 😉
Why are you blaming Furlani for Maldini losing good players on frees? Literally Maldini lost over 100M in players for nothing. Maldini couldn’t negotiate a contract to save his life let alone his job. Not saying Furlani did good but stating he lost players on frees is daft
why bring Maldini to this?!
nobody can extend Gigio w/ 5m/s max & Kessie 4m/s, guess who put those silly salary cap?
M what furlani to do with this guy tare bought nkunku
What might happen is that RLC is kept for the attacking duo role.
vice-regista and CM that can score is already part of Max’s wishlist. if RLC extends for half the salary he will be 5th choice behind Puli, Leao, ST that will be bought and Santi.
Whatever the case may be, Estupiñán has to go and Nkunku is gone.
The squad needs someone like Gila from Lazio, a ball-playing, left-footed player who can also carry the ball forward. Then another first-team striker who is also a target man.
I would highly recommend, if my opinion is even worth anything, a number 10. Someone who has an engine and can create.
Then a starting left back, or at least a left back who can run with the ball and can shoot. D
Zalewski
Perrone
Veerman
Gila
Retegui
this would be my ideal 5.
And for plan B:
Bellanova
Bernabe
Saibiri
Lucumi
Castro
“Nkunku is gone.”
What makes you think anyone would pay for him?
Nkunku is far more better option than Fullkrug, or Origi.
At the end he havent finished as someone who can create chance but his numbers are still ddcent.
One year loan or sale for 30 million means that Milan didnt lost anything.
If we dont get someone as Castro, Nkunku can stay.
His cost numbers are huge but we all know what happened with costs like Origi type player.
Year by year his value go down for at least 7 million so his future sale might be important one day.
Estupinan is better than Kevin Constant – should we keep him too?
Selling him the season following his arrival is basically saying “we are incompetent at our job” and not for the first time, see Morata. So whoever thought this was a good transfer should leave the club along with Nkunku. What an absolute circus…
Don’t forget Emerson Royal, lmao.
Hiring Nkunku was absolutely the wrong move and yes, insanely expensive for what he can deliver, which is very little.
From the beginning I was against it, and posted numerous times here, saying that Nkunku was a washed has-been who was a shadow of his former brilliant self in Germany. He had a series of injuries and never recovered his top form. Again, we were conned by overpaying for a Chelsea reject.
Yes, Furlani is definitely the culprit, He seems to have some sort of sweet deal with Chelsea.
Hiring Nkunku was a grave mistake and the sooner we get rid of him, the better. He contributed with a few goals, half of them from PKs (yes, at least he is a good PK taker, but that’s not enough). Take out those and he scored only 3 goals. That’s not a contribution that can justify his high hiring fee and his high salary. Most games, he is a ghost and disappears, accomplishing nothing.
By the way, Füllkrug is another has-been. His numbers for WHU and for AC MIlan are Origi-like. At least he was just a loan and not a permanent hire like Nkunku.
By the way, it is to be noticed that Allegri was apparently also against this move. Allegri is a gentleman who very rarely speaks against a player or against an administrator. In this case Allegri was so puzzled that he couldn’t help himself and he did say that he didn’t know how he could use Nkunku in his team. When the freaking head coach says so, the administrators should refrain from hiring the player whom the head coach deems useless. And yes, Allegri was right. Nkunku is indeed useless.
Furlani approved this transfer in a heartbeat at the very last minute. Nkunku was never asked for and neither was he a necessity here. Enough said.