AC Milan have officially confirmed the signing of defender Koni De Winter from Genoa on a long-term deal.
After the sale of Malick Thiaw to Newcastle United was made official in the past 24 hours, it was already known that the announcement regarding his replacement was imminent, given Milan acted quickly to wrap up De Winter.
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Over the weekend, it was reported by Fabrizio Romano and other reliable sources that a €20m operation had been agreed with Genoa, and the Belgian arrived to undergo a medical on Tuesday afternoon.
De Winter to AC Milan: Now official
A statement on the official website reads as follows: “AC Milan announces the permanent acquisition of Koni De Winter from Genoa CFC. The Belgian defender has signed a contract with the Rossoneri until June 30, 2030.”
“In March 2024, he was called up for the first time by the senior national team, making his debut in a friendly against Ireland. Koni De Winter will wear the number 5 shirt.”
Having joined Juventus in 2018 from Zulte Waregem in his home country, De Winter actually made his senior Champions League debut under Massimiliano Allegri in a game against Malmo.
He spent the 2022-23 season on loan at Empoli, then the following year on loan at Genoa, before joining permanently. The 23-year-old has 68 Serie A appearances under his belt, and three goals with the Rossoblu, plus three Belgium senior caps.
Good to hear! Welcome to Milan!
Oh wow. We got the 20m rotation player we needed. Unfortunately we sold the first choice CB for 40m.
Thought that might be because we wanted Leoni but he is off to Liverpool.
Nothing ever makes sense at this club.
Oh well, onwards and downwards
Look at negative nancy over here. First of all, he’s going to be a starter. Second of all, you guys think this is FIFA Career mode with spending 40m on an unproven 18 year old. You guys will complain over everything.
I absolutely don’t think it was a good idea. I have posted before that it would be a mistake to swap Thiaw foe Leoni. However given they went ahead and sold Thiaw I think we needed a top replacement. We always needed another CB anyway and De Winter would fit the bill. So who’s next?
4 CB’s for 3 positions is not enough
Brother you’re not making sense
De Winter is a better player than Thiaw. So you are drunk.
Then why Como or Newcastle didn’t try to buy De Winter? He was right there, and cheaper.
LOL Since when was Thiaw the first choice CB? You are smoking something serious. And this player is easily an upgrade over him. Nothing ever makes sense with trolls on here. Pathetic negative and clueless.
He is an excellent young CB who was very good playing with Gabbia under Fonseca. He has also been the lynchpin of the defense in preseason and Allegri himself said “it’s a shame”
Most commentators like the guys on the podcast agree he was our best CB.
Tomori and Pavlovic are headless chickens, Gabbia is solid. But I guess nobody offered 40m for them, I wonder why?
No he wasn’t. He had a few good games, got injured, came back poor and was never a starter again. Nobody argues he was our best CB. That’s a hugeeeeeeeeeee stretch of the imagination. Thiaw was more error prone than Pavlovic.
And most people are shocked Thiaw went for 40 million, but it’s Newcastle. He was about to go for half that.
Also De Winter is better than Thiaw so there is that.
SJF just one of these clowns that have to complain about everything. Now we all have to pretend that Thiaw was an amazing CB for us. He was never first choice. Every time Milan let a player go the “what a huge mistake” crowd come out. When Daniel Maldini scored 1 goal for Monza it was “how could management let him go!” You would think Tonali was Zidane the way these people talk about him now, meanwhile he was barely above average for us. They are insufferable.
Tonali was amazing for us. You just don’t watch games.
Tiji was amazing
Theo was amazing (albeit had a poor season this year)
A team with ambition does not sell it’s best players every year.
You’re one of these guys that loves signings and the more the merrier, just when 9 of the 10 don’t work out you are confused.
Every year is a year zero for these clowns
Thiaw had a few good games, and then was poor for us. So lets get back to that point, SJF. He was less consistent than Tomori or Pavlovic, and lost his starting place.
@SJF back and watch some of those Tonali games. He was not amazing. He was very good. There was potential. For Newcastle he has also been very good.
Reinjders was not amazing. He too was very good. He held the ball too long and took wild shots landing in the Curva. His ability to involve others was only good, not great and certainly not amazing.
Last year Reinjders scored a lot of goals (esp for a mid) but was hard to evaluate due to the chaos of
the Portuguese Pair.
Theo has been in decline since the departure of Maldini. Last year he metastasized into a full blown cancer. This too can be partially attributed to poor mgmt and said Pair, but he wasn’t “amazing” the season before last either. He was almost very good.
We had 4 CBs of roughly equal quality but different attributes. We sold one for well over market thus creating an opportunity.
I don’t love the constant chop & change, but we were 8th last year and expect to be competing for a Scudetto year over year. So this year there is some sense to it.
The fact they were never able to properly replace Tonali even when spending 80 millions on a completely new midfield, says enough. And no, Reijnders was not his replacement lmao. Today Tonali’s valued at nearly 90 millions.
First choice? When was this? A couple of semi-decent runs as a starter doesn’t make you “first choice”, it makes you the in form rotation player.
Thiago has never been Milan first choice CB.
Your unproven and overrated, overpriced Leoni won’t find any buyer for $40M. Hiding behind your keyboard and try try to undermine any players that Milan is after doesn’t make sense for a so called supporter. Now that Thiaw is sold he was the best CB, while he was with us he was garbage because he was brought by the management you hate so much.
Thiaw has always been very promising. He was chucked in when we had an injury crisis and was motm many times, locking down Kane and the likes in the CL.
Anyway it’s the business model here, just look at Tiji. New contract signed and our best player, sold without any fight.
If Jashari or whoever has a good season they will be sold to cover the debts of not playing CL next season.
And yet we are haggling over Musah who should have been sold months ago for any half decent offer.
No he wasn’t. He got injured, lost his form and was never really a starter again.
But then it goes back to the original point here. De Winter is an upgrade over Thiaw. So your entire argument is moot.
Not really as we needed de Winter anyway and clearly that deal had been in the works before Thiaw was sold
Also if de Winter is so brilliant how come Juve never brought him back despite their injury crisis? or no other team willing to offer more than 20m.
I hope he does great and he is a profile we needed, but overall we are weaker.
eg sell RLC, Musah, Adli etc not Tiji
De Winter was linked to several big moves this summer, including Roma and Juventus. De Winter is a better player than Thiaw. Thiaw hasn’t been good since before he got injured, and he’s been injured multiple times. So you’re just wrong. Again. Also we are stronger than last season already with the reinforcements, including Jashari and Ricci.
Also RLC, Musah and Adli would command next to nothing when it comes to a transfer. So you’re drunk.
You guys think this is FIFA career mode?!!
Liverpool agreed 35M fee for Leoni.
In 3 years thiaw was here he was never first choice. He had a stint of good games starting then got injured but he was never first choice.
For someone who’s injury prone and was never stellar I think this is milan has never over sold a player like him. They did fantastic
Welcome and good luck!
This is out of topic.
But do you guys remember about a young striker who milan wanted.
He was a teenager from eastern europe, maybe serbian.
His father was his agent.
There are several clubs who tried to sign him.
I’m curious what was his name and where is he now?
Popovic
Napoli signed him.
Selling a €15M-level player like Thiaw for €40M is a masterclass in business by Moncada. From what I’ve seen, De Winter looks stronger defensively, with better pace, more aggression, and superior ball control and carrying ability.
Moncada? You mean Tare, he was in England at the time too. Go back to bed.
De Winter is a right centreback. Now we only need a central centerback with positional sense, leadership skills and the attitude of a big asshole (Materazzi-style), and we are good to go. Do you hear me, Igli!!!?
Perhaps. But he is a right centreback, and not a central centreback with leadership skills, and this defense desperately need one…
I cant really speak of De Koni as my knowledge of him is a bit slim and even if I think that we got a good fee for Thiaw there has actually 1.5 years ago seemingly been interest in him from big clubs like Madrid and Bayern so the kid is far from as bad as some people wants to paint it. Besides of that if reports are to be believed then Milan recently tried to renew him and let him become an important part of the squad under Allegri who would have preferred to keep him. In a recent interview he didn’t really seem to happy about losing the kid either.
Anyways I would have hoped us to actually have brought in some Italians for the cash available as we can hardly talk about an Italian revolution as we have less now than previously so either the management was blowing smoke up our arses or the Italian revolution is Allegris arrival + Ricci which hardly is a revolution even if good arrivals.
I hope De Koni does well with us though.
Italy revolution? That is just talk for suporters. If they think that,they will bring Leoni.
Camarda was loan and will play some Hojlund who even dont like our club.
So man its just another lie from our owners and managment.
They only look money nothing else.They dont care even we was 15 at seria A,if they have profit at end of year.
Maybe a bit of a truth with modifications as they could earn even more money by being successful 😛
Leoni is official to Liverpool for 35m plus % of resale. The problem is that Liverpool have the funds to pay that and gamble if he fails or to let him wait and develop. Nobody in Italy can afford that luxury. Need a sure starter for that kind of money
This. 35M for a punt on a 19 year old is peanuts for Liverpool and many other PL clubs, while Serie A clubs struggle to come up with 35M for sure-fire starters. Simple as that. We spent 20M to replace a player we sold for 40M in what is almost a like for like move. That gives us an extra 20M to throw at striker, which is an important position where we need help and where good players tend to cost more, or to throw at a 5th CB where, as some people have pointed out, we are better served with 5 CBs if we’re going to use a 3 CB formation.
Who is this sure starter? De Winter just has more experience, I’d bet Leoni is already better than him. You are talking like Milan went for Van Diijk instead of the young talent.
You bet that? How about actually prove it? OH that’s right. You rely on ChatGPT for most of your posts.
And how exactly would you set this bet up? By comparing someone playing at Milan, competing against Pavlovic and Tomori and the other guy fighting for game time with Van Diijk and Konate? You’re such a tool. How about we bet about your low IQ and I prove it? 🤣🤣
You seem to think your stupid comments somehow annoy me or whatever. I am only said you don’t have a normal IQ so I can have a proper discussion with you. You’re stuck on this one stupid comment for anything I write because you, somehow, think that is smart. Try hitting your had against a wall, but really hard, maybe something is fixed.
*head
Or just maybe Italy is not producing great footballers any more… Which is why they missed out on the last 2 World Cups and may miss out again this time. Stop living in the past. Italy is producing very few top level players and the few that are you have to way overpay for them.
No, it is just that Leoni looks like he’ll be world class by 20. Guys we signed never will. That is the price difference. Why didn’t Liverpool go for De Winter? They don’t need average talents.
LMAO That’s some mighty big crystal ball nonsense you have there. Liverpool has had their fair share of flops.
Ok.
Leoni could be world class or he can be a flop. Problem is no team in serie a can afford that gamble. He has what, 12games in serie a? If he was for 15-20m I’m sure the big Italian clubs would have fought for him. As of now, de winter is a safer bet at half the cost and hes only 23. He can still become a world class defender too and we can’t bash him because he went for ‘only’ 20 million. Allegris system might have him take the next step in his development.
Liverpool have over spent on many players before and they have flopped… Like nunez. Milan have spent only 20m on someone like reijnders and he was great.
There isn’t a single scout on the planet that believes he can become world class. And that is my problem with the signing. He is decent, probably good, but hardly excellent.
The Italian revolution was just talks from the media and supporters
Milan should have signed Djimsiti and Leoni. It would be 40-45M total in fees, wages would be ok. Djimsiti is an immediate starter with his Serie A experience and I think Leoni would be as well. Defence would probably be better, for about the same money. But you can’t re-sell Djimsiti so that seems out of question.
You’d get a 32 year old player that has 250-300 Serie A games, CL experience, and he has at least 2 years left in him, for under 10M. Probably 5-6, his contract expiring. And Leoni, the kid that Allegri said is the future of Italy. We’ll see how it goes with De Winter + whoever they sign.
I Want all you guys to Remember that this same Thiaw came for less than 10m, so koni de winter just have to be presease
De winter or de Fall, even De Summer is gonna get terrible for next season
The season begins. Some players came, some were sold. However, the funniest thing is that no one knows in which formation Milan will play. This has led to the fact that we have countless experts who see or know the best formation for this Milan. This is how these advocates of 3-5-2 respond, and when they are asked where are you going to take Pulisic? And how come we have Salemakers and Jimenez in the RLB position and bring another one from Young Boys, they don’t know the answers. Of course, Pulisic can’t play either another striker or a midfielder. Ok, he could play in 3-5-1-1 as an offensive midfielder behind Leao, but the question is what about Gimenez and Hojlund/Vlahovic. So you don’t know and don’t waste your time and nerves 😀
Lol facts!!
Welcome to Inter Milan Koni!!!
Sad thing is that after wanting Leoni all summer, and Everyone saying we can’t afford him, he has signed for Liverpool for 26m ????? That’s not much more than we have paid for De Winter……and you can’t forget the fact that Coppola went to Brighton for 10m !!??
I think De Winter is a good signing, but we have missed out again, Buongiorno, on very promising Italian talent and instead gone for Foreigners
But De Koni has 40 more games in Serie A, so he is “proven”. That is the most standard comment. He is also 5 years older lol, of course he has.
Welcome and good luck!
For the debate on being negative on a transfer….it’s called being critical. You guys get confused and waaaay to enamoured over ANY signing as long as it is a signing. If we look at our transfers the last 3 or so years, we’ve had way more misses than hits. Just from a purely statistical pov, this transfer is also likely to fail. The *hope* is that it doesn’t.
If you look at it specifically, the transfer is good financially but on a sporting merit it is still yet to be decided as we don’t know how it will turn out. Playing for Genoa isn’t the same as Milan. And he’s young. Thiaw when fit and at full speed is probably our best centre back (it’s also why Real Madrid last year and Newcastle and others this year wanted him as opposed to the others we have). I don’t know if he was our preferred choice as a starter but I do know he had the best potential and skill set out of all of our CBs. The problem really was him always having to get up to speed after an injury. But when on form, he’s very very good.
We’ve now offloaded Thiaw who was probably our best transfer for the window he came in, and Reinjders who was one of the two best transfers in his window he came in (Puli being the other). The rest largely have failed. So excuse people for casting a doubtful eye on the magical “20m” transfer players.
Oh not to mention, it’s going to take time to gel with teammates, form chemistry etc. So another 2-3 years to get going…just in time to sell on again and if you guys can’t see the trend, the I really can’t help y’all ✌️
Hold up,.he’s 23? I thought he was younger for some reason. Add that to the “con” section of this transfer