Mercato

Romano: ‘Here we go!’ – the details as Fofana will join Milan from Monaco

By Oliver Fisher -

AC Milan have finally agreed a deal with AS Monaco for midfielder Youssouf Fofana and he will soon travel for his medical, according to Fabrizio Romano.

It has been a long and testing negotiation for Milan as they have been in a tug of war with the Ligue 1 side for what feels like months, but over the past 24 hours reports had been suggesting that the parties were moving closer together.

Fabrizio Romano writes: ‘Youssouf Fofana to AC Milan, here we go!’ He adds that the green light just arrived from Monaco on payment terms for what will be a ‘€25m package with add-ons included’.

The France international will sign a four year contract plus the option for further season, which is the same deal that the other three new signings have penned, and that he will travel to Italy for his medical in the next 24 hours.

A lot was written during the negotiations about how Fofana pushed hard for the move, and Romano adds that he has had ‘no doubts since July: he only wanted AC Milan’.

Milan will therefore land their No.1 midfield target and he will arrive to help provide some protection for a defensive line that was often left way too exposed last season.

Tags AC Milan Youssouf Fofana

129 Comments

    1. Weren’t you one of the people who were defending the management for offering 12 mil 😀 Turns out the teeth gnashers as you call them were right again and you were wrong as usual lol. But nice try to brush it off.

      1. If you remember, many of us maintained that this was an ongoing negotiation. That it doesn’t matter where you start, as long as you come to a point of agreement…

        2. Nope. Many of us were saying offer 20mil and get it done. But the likes of Dejan were defending the 12mil offer that as we said turn out to be a joke and we got to 20mil again. So im not sure for what he is calling people out, when those people were in the right.

          1. Oh man – you guys said WE’LL NEVER SIGN FOFANA and have been complaining about not signing a DM for THE LAST MONTH before the transfer window even ended. That’s my point, genius.

      2. still complaining, like seriously you will find a way to complain even if Milan wins a trophy

        it really irks you that Redbird is not selling everyone like you envisioned LOL.

        1. Im not the one complaining, in fact no one is complaining here.Im just calling Dejan out on his typical bs where he likes to attack people even when he is in the wrong. He is building a straw man argument that some people were against Fofana. When that was not the case, people were against the 12mil offer and said offer 20mil. And as it turns out those people were right. But Dejan still tries to do some mental gymnastic as usual and attack people for nothing.

      3. Um… no I never said that. And right about what? Jesus Christ, by “teeth gnashers” I’m referring to yet another catastrophic prediction that you lot have got wrong so far:

        Milan won’t sign anyone without Maldini…
        Milan won’t spend any money in the mercato…
        Milan will finish mid or bottom of the table…
        Milan are doing nothing while Inter, Juve, Napoli get stronger!
        Milan won’t sign Fofana!
        And on and on (and on)…

        Maybe you prefer the term “whining grouch”? I’m happy to address you as either.

        2. I don’t know who predicted these but until this management wins a Scudetto or get past the semi-finals of CL, they have done worse than Maldini. That’s just fact.

      4. Milan paid more than they wanted and Monaco got less than they wanted. That is the definition of a good settlement of negotiations. Does it matter what our first offer was now that we got our man? It does not.

        2. Monaco started with asking 20mil and got 25mil in the end. If Milan offered 20mil right away they would have gotten the player for cheaper and long time ago.

          1. Monaco wanted 25M, moved it up to 35M when West Ham came in.
            They wanted Milan to match West Ham.
            Milan didn’t budge. 23M + Bonuses is a compromise.

            Moving goalposts much?

          2. @Ryan you had plentie of articles saying Monaco wanted 20mil. This was at the beggining, West Hem wasnt even in the picture. Things changed once we started with the low offers and angered their owner tho. But it is what it is now.

      5. Not sure you understand how a negotiation works 😂

        Pretty sure Monaco wanted €35, we offered something like €12, and everyone met in the middle. If we came in with €20M, we would have ended up with something in-between that and €35M.

        P.s. Before you start with the “they wanted €20M at first and only increased after West Ham came in”, surely you understand that would have happened even if we offered €20M to begin with (unless you believe that West Ham football club only formed after then).

    3. “But why did it take so long?”
      “But aren’t there better targets?”
      “But why did we disrespect Monaco with low offers?”
      “But if you table an unrealistically low offer, the seller won’t take you seriously. I know, I’ve been involved in negotiations…”
      “But ManUtd will come in and he’s as good as gone”

      Take your pick …

    4. Well to be fair the pro management also supported their decision to make a low ball 12 mil offer on the base of hist last year of contract. There’s also a dude who always bring up Haaland’s case on which it’s entire different case to begin with.

      And now we ended up with almost double that figure. On which many said it’s laughable amount for player on his last year of contract. For me, I’m just glad that this is over and we can finally get our target.

      1. It doesn’t matter what everyone huffed and puffed about. This Milan has their own valuations of players they go after. For Fofana it was apparently never going to exceed more than 20mil fixed.

        I think they paid more than they wanted to for him because timing was getting tight and they needed to bring in a DM. I think ideally they would have wanted to have it wrapped up for 20mil including bonuses and all.

        So it’s fair to say in some ways they paid more than they want on a player.

      2. I’d love to see you haggle. Why not start at the lowest you’re willing to offer? The lower you begin, the lower the meeting point is going to be. If something you want to buy is offered at €50, and you want to pay €40, you would typically start at €30, not €38. 40 is in the middle of 30 and 50, and that’s how you get there.

        Note that we’re paying 22M plus 3M in bonus. That’s roughly 10M up from where we started and 10M down from their demands.

        1. Of course you can always start low. But as everything in business, there’s always a trade off. Yes you can start low, but what you sacrifice is time. If this is a path that the management takes; longer negotiation – a bit lower price, then so be it. There’s always positive and negative about something.

          The point that many members here highlighted is that if we settled in 20-25 mil we could sign the deal much quicker. Yes, the same amount we finally paid here. If somehow we finished the deal below 20 mil, then we can clearly say that the management’s strategy is paid off.

    5. You, Sir, was one of many on this forum that argued that he wasn’t worth more than 20 million euro due to his contract situation.

      Rossi is right, you thought 12 million was sufficient.

      An excellent signing indeed, but don’t wash your hands too much.

      OT. Welcome Fofana. This Mercato has been splendid with this signing

      1. Does that really matter?

        He was still right, just because you dont understand business dont attack people who understands what negotiations mean.

        1. As if I have the time and patience to find a month old thread.

          But your username and avatar is easy to remember.

          Right about what? Any player is worth what the market can agree upon, and ACM wasted weeks on nothing.

    2. Dont worry they’ll find a different thing to complain about

      If Milan wins the league it’ll be ‘the league sucks, not worth celebrating’

    3. Truths! Horse that start the Race early could not be the Winner. ( Proverb) Congratulations to Zlatan! Forza Furlani!! Forza Moncada!!!

  5. BOOM! Another target we set out for is signed.
    This thing is coming together nicely despite the Doom&Gloom on these threads …

    FORZA MILAN ⚫️🔴

  6. Forza Milan! 4 excellent signins on positions we needed. Everything from here on is just icing on the well baked cake.

    Forza Cardinale, Moncada, Ibrahimovic and all other involved in this great business this summer ❤🖤❤🖤

      2. Fitting name, but bold claim. We’ll have to see what we can achieve, Maldini had a continued progress with the team from banter to serie a title and cl knock outs. But it looks good only thing i’m skeptical about is Morata, but lets see how he performs

  7. Finally, it did take a while (more than it should), but here we are.
    I wasn’t fully convinced by picking Fofana as the defensive midfielder (mainly because he used to play with more defensive players than himself), but hopefully he can adapt and fill this hole in our midfield.
    I won’t give a rating to this mercato, but it’s overall nice to see us picking specific targets in positions which needed it the most.
    I don’t know if we’re intending to purchase other players but for me this is as good as over.

  8. So they’ve managed to finalise the deal on the sum they knew about already 4 months ago and the bunch here goes wild and shove it in our faces like they got him for, as they like to put it, a fair offer of 12 millions🤣🤣🤣

    The lowballing took at least a week or two of preparation with his new team and a coach but I don’t want to be too petty.

    Now we can finally start our season.

    Forza Milan!

    1. Right… professional footballers need to be transferred in on day one of the window or else they can’t function properly…

        1. CDK was quite young. Fofana is older and more mature of a player and we already have our French players that’ll make him feel right at home.

        2. And you are sure it is because of late transfer? Not maybe other factors? Like moving to a new country, learning a new language, pressure in bigger club, nervosity or anything else? It is just because they came august 15th instead of july 15th?

          Thanks for your divine knowledge man.

          1. Oh my dear lord, seems some of you really need me to draw it for you – yes my man, yes that’s the exact reason why new players need to come in early to settle in.

            I see you are responding to me also in other articles and seeing what you’re writing to me, it seems it’s just for the sake of saying something back eventhough it’s meaningless. If you want to have a discussion make a point and stay consistent.

        3. CDK and Chuk suffered from confidence issues not lack of pre-season – the former being an out and out flop no matter when he would’ve turned up. At least Chuk got his act together toward the end of the season.

          1. CdK also suffered.playi g out of.poaition.

            Chuk clearly doesn’t have high tactical IQ this his immense time to adapt. However given so many other players out of position and all the inverted madness I suspect Pioli wasn’t helping any.

            It took Chuk about 7 months to get to where he could function without literally running into his mates down the right.

            Thus has he been acquired in June in lieu of Aug he would have come up to speed in Jan. IMO this is unacceptable for a pro. Id love eto learn more about why at some point.

            Chuk is an exception.

      2. @dejan10 Let’s hope it won’t happen, but here we talk about still young folk joining huge club like Milan that starts league in 3 days. There is no time to adapt, play in friendlies or simply get familiar with the team. He will be thrown into full Serie A stadium with tens of thousands of people playing against teams like Napoli, where every single mistake could cost points. So yes, there is a chance he won’t function properly, just like De Ketelaere did 😉 have you been on San Siro on Serie A game? Then you’d know what I’m talking about 😉

      3. Considering we’ve closed the deal with 25M€ (20M€+bonuses) which was the first asking price, you could say we wasted more than a week with the first offer of 12M€. We didn’t lowball so much for Pavlovic.
        Anyways, I hope Fofana will be a huge success and not another CDK.

        2. How can Milan have wasted a month when Fofana was with the national team until mid July and had a well deserved holiday break after that. He missed a week of preseason at most.

  9. Phew took longer than my taste but at least we didn’t succumb to 35m or so when west ham tried to enter the race.

    20+5m in bonuses is a fair price, i was expecting it to be 15+5 but whatever at least it’s done deal now.

    Here hoping he would gel right away with help from french connections milan have in the team.

    He seems to be a complete midfielder, a ball winner who is also good with his feet.

  11. Nice one, finally 😀

    Now if we can sell Adli for say 10-12mn, that’s a notable upgrade to the squad for not a lot of expenditure.

    Forza Milan

  12. Finally some good replacement for DM role!

    This signing is the most strategical one in this mercato and turning point.

    Let’s not forget that he is joining us AFTER preseason. So, most likely he will struggle at least for a few games or even months.

    Let’s don’t ask too much from his at least till Christmas and then we will see.

    What I am amazed is Liberali, Zeroli and Camarda might be involved in main squad in this season! Fu*king Varselona bet on their teenagers and it paid of well. We have better teenagers than them I believe.

    1. I think he’ll do fine right away. He has a bit of experience as a player. He shouldn’t take that long to adjust. We have our French players already to make him feel at home.

  13. I just hope it works out. I’m very sure the fans clamoring for the signing would also hit him hard when he doesn’t perform. Forza Milan

  14. According to some on here “He sucks, we should have paid 35 million and it would look better!”

    Na but seriously, an excellent signing. Milan is making their choices who they sign with great care, not engaging in panic buying like some other teams in Italy.

  15. It took way too long but in the end we finally got our man!!! I’ll gladly wait if it means we sign him. It goes to show how much a players will can play out in negotiations, he had offers for big teams with more money and he only wanted milan. That makes him a fan favorite already!! Now come and let’s get this season started! FORZA MILAN!!

  16. Now that’s an excellent signing. A very good player, indeed a regular starter on one of the most strong national sides of the last decades, covering a position that our team was sorely missing.

    FORZA, MILAN and welcome on board, Fofana!

  17. I can’t help but feel a bit excited really 🙂 I’m not sure what else we will do this summer… is Jovic confirmed to stay or will we still go for another striker?

  18. €13m Morata
    €18m Pavlovic
    €15m Royal
    €25m Fofana

    No significant outgoing as of yet.

    Cheap management. SMH

    Forza Milan.

      1. Declan rice was 100mil+ Not mediocre at all for someone who only passes backwards…

        Transfer price isn’t as relevant as the quality.

        Puli was 20mil. CDK was 30+. And yet the less expensive player hit the ground running and scored plenty of goals…

        But yea, keep using CAPS. Your take will make more sense that way.

        1. Every single transfer carries a risk. You sign a 5m player you took a risk worth 5m you sign a 50m player you took a risk of that magnitude. It means you could take a loss of that size but also the reward will be as significant. Madrid will never be Madrid if they don’t take risks on players like Jovic who will be a flop, they take the loss there but take their wins CL trophies with spending big (taking huge risks) on the likes of Tchouameni, Camavinga, Bellingham, Rodrygo and Vinicious.

          It’s a simple thing. The bigger the club, the more risk they usually take with regards to transfer fees and wages.

          Makes you wonder where we’re at when we have the same transfer cap as Atalanta and Fiorentina, but X times the revenue.

      3. Haha I’m read similar comments but I’m sure they didn’t explicitly mean that (I hope not that’s a bit illogical)

        Emerson isnt v good ill stand by that having watched a lot of Spurs. But the others are nice additions to the 1st XI.

        Would be nice if we could offload our deadweight then it’s an excellent mercato

    3. Misleading comment.

      So far we have spent :
      Fofana : Around 20m (fixed part)
      Pavlovic : 18m
      Royal : 15m
      Morata : 13m
      Jimenez : 5m

      And we have gained from departures :
      De Ketelaere : 22m
      Krunic : 3.5m
      Simic : 3m

      That means for now we are at the overall balance of around 43m net spend. Some players like Adli (10-12m) and Kalulu (3.5 for the loan) among others will probably still leave, and we may yet sign another player on loan or for a very small sum, which puts us at around the usual 35m transfer cap that Redbird is known to have implemented.

      So we are indeed being cheap if you want to compare to other giant clubs (like Milan) who are big spenders out there (unlike Milan). It’s nothing to brag about at the very least, as those players we have signed have cost peanuts in todays market and we are talking about Milan here not Fiorentina or Lazio. SMH

      1. Exactly.

        I have been saying this over and over again.

        NET transfer spend is 35M per season. So we will have some sales to bring that number down

        And IF we go after a Samardvić – Benny will be sold 💯

        So ya agreed, 35M NET spend is a joke

        I also find it comical that the American fans are cheering Redbird on lol – who gives a $h*t what nationality the owners are – just spend the money so we can win titles.

  19. Fabulous! I’m thrilled. My last post on this, in the Pagelle thread for the Monza friendly, I said I was becoming optimistic that deal would be done.

    Yes, I was worried that it was taking too long to patch the defensive capacity of our midfield, but all is well that ends well. I do think that we started the negotiation on the wrong foot and likely would have concluded it paying less and sooner, if we hadn’t offended Monaco’s owner with a lowball offer of 12M and no bonuses, and with not talking to him before talking to Fofana; likely that second offer of 14M + bonuses that at one point was all but accepted, would have succeeded if the owner didn’t get enraged. But again, that is a small mistake when the end result is that the player is indeed joining us. Like it was said, we ended up paying a bit more than we planned (about 6M more), but Fofana is worth it.

    A very successful mercato! I think we’re all set. We don’t need Samardzic with Liberali available to backup the CAM position manned by RLC and/or Pulisic. We don’t need another ST with the way Jovic and Okafor are playing. No need for a winger with the way Alexis is playing, he can be a suitable backup for both the left and the right. We do need an LB deputy for Theo given that Terraciano sucks and Bartesaghi is good but not great; Jimenez is good but got injured (I didn’t hear anything about it after the injury) and he is more offensive than defensive. But the thing is, Theo is a bull and very, very rarely injured so it’s not as critical that he doesn’t have a suitable deputy; his only problem in terms of missing games is discipline. I hope Fonseca impacts on him that he can’t continue to collect yellow and red cards and should not be carded for dissent; keep his opinions about the refs to himself, otherwise he damages the team. Theo really needs to understand that. If he does, he will play practically all games of the season so that a backup is less critical. But yes, if we can get a good LB deputy as an option in the last two weeks of the mercato, that’s good, but I don’t think there is any movement in that direction (and again, I’m not complaining, given how athletic Theo is).

    We are all set. Let the season roll. Forza Milan!

    Thank you, our management, for not selling any essential player, and for reinforcing nicely four sectors of the team that needed help. And let’s acknowledge it: Fonseca is doing a good job. I was likely wrong in doubting him. Sure, let’s see how the official games go instead of friendlies but now I’m confident that Fonseca will continue to do well.

  20. So they knew from the start they need to pay 25mil to get him, took them weeks of “negotiations” just to finally pay 25mil 🤣

    Nevertheless good transfer, let’s hope he will finally fill in hole that Kessie left some time ago and has never been properly filled.

      1. From the start they were asking for 25mil.

        Please, read something before splitting out useless words and comments. Hard to answer to all that ridiculous comments posted by you…

        1. Read something? So you think West Ham is some idiot who paid 35M just to get the 25M player while the competitor offer 12M?

      2. It was raised at some points to 35M€ when their president raged, but the starting price was 25M€.
        Also some clubs pay more than the asking price in order to secure the player. Lucky for us, Fofana didn’t want to consider any other club (because of the UCL I guess).

        1. West Ham offered €35m to secure Fofana without negotiating. Even if Milan had offered 25 million euros from the start, negotiations would have been needed and Monaco would have tried to raise the price anyway.

          1. “ Even if Milan had offered 25 million euros from the start, negotiations would have been needed” – sorry mate but that’s just BS. You have no idea if they would react like this. They were solid reports that Monaco were asking for 25mil from the start. That was price set by them.

  21. Lets not fool ourselves…the risk was there for this deal to be hijacked. We all waited with bated breath when Man U started sniffing around. And had they not done so, Monaco would not have upped the figures. So Milan was realistic about getting the deal done for under 20mil. But i for one am happy its done…Let the season begin. Sempre Milan.

    2. 100% right, but some bots just won’t get that.

      Truth is, Milan was lucky that fofana was stubborn to want only Milan. Otherwise, he would be long gone to some premier league team.

      2. Lucky how? Milan sold their dream and project to Fofana who bought it. Other clubs try to do the same. Is it possible that our project was more promising than Europe Less EPL clubs lurking around?

        1. Objectively it make more sense right now to pick AC Milan (top 5 serie A club which plays in UCL and sometimes fights for the league title) than Manchester United (wins some FA Cups and Carabao cups here and there but other than that, didn’t fight for the EPL in eons and is currently in EPL). If a butthurt Man U fan reads me, I’m sorry but that’s true.
          We could say we were lucky that Fofana is somewhat ambitious (and doesn’t only think about the money) and that all the clubs that tried to get him are not playing in UCL.

  22. Another great Mercato by this terrible, cheap American ownership and stupid management that don’t care about winning…
    Thank you Redbird and management for continuing to strengthen the team year after year. While being profitable…Imagine that.

  25. No matter how you spin it this was a great off-season from Milan. First of all, the new manager seems to have clear ideas and the football that we have played in preseason is definitely encouraging.
    Secondly, aside from the striker position, we got our first choice for reinforcement and at excellent prices. I know some people wish we would spend more, but I love the fact that we are constantly getting players for less than the asking price while other clubs are blowing out their budgets to bring players in. Third, the resurgence of Alexis and the form that Liberali is in makes it feel like we got two brand new signings.
    This management continues to surprise at times and the sporting project is exciting, along with the new stadium and brand recognition work they’ve done. I’m pumped for this season!!

    1. And let’s not forget, we now have Milan Futuro. Things are looking bright for Milan. There is no doubt that management is doing a good job. We are profitable, we are staying within budget, we have reinforced the team, the head coach seems to be doing well, we have Milan Futuro, and we are marching towards owning our own stadium. And we did not fold to Zirkzee’s agent’s outrageous demands. All good. Forza Milan!

      1. This.

        A S.W.A.G. is €30m investment to make Futuro real. Coupled with €71m in player purchases and that is two €100m summer mercatos.

        I am more excited about Futuro and what it will mean for us in the coming 5 years than any individual player we’ve acquired.

        Part of this is that we now seem serious about providing development opportunities to our own youngsters!

        Forza Futuro
        Forza AC Milan

        2. Nevermind needing to accumulate fund to pay for a 1Bn euro stadium. I keep looking for seeds for a Money Tree. Can’t seem to find any…

  26. Excellent player and finally we have a proper DM.

    With the signings of Moratta, Pavlovic, Royal and now Fofana, this Mercato has been great. Add to that the Futuro and the future looks bright.

  27. Fofana seems like a great signing.

    So who starts in MF now? If it’s a center pivot, what’s the prime pair? And are we going to rotate MF heavily, because Fonseca ball is going to ask a lot of this pair running-wise? It seems like we have the depth now. I think I’d start with Fofana-Reijnders, but are Bennacer and Musah going to play? Enough? I like Musah’s long run upside a lot, like he should be as good as Fofana eventually. So I want to see him play. But if he’s not going to play, we should loan him out.

    And where does RLC fit? I guess he fits in mostly at the 10, but he’s played in a pivot before, so he can definitely play there as well. I do think we need 4 good options for the pivot, because we’re in lots of comps and there will be injuries. So I want to see a lot of rotation there and keep the midfield fresh and dominant and give minutes to Musah. He doesn’t need to play every game, but I do think he needs 30-60 minutes every week. I think Musah’s skills are best used in a pivot next to somebody who is a better passer.

    1. My guess is that the primary pairing would be Fofana-Reijnders with Pulisic upfront. Bennacer would probably replace either Reijnders or Fofana since he is the best defensive profile (outside of Fofana). It’s difficult to see Musah getting a lot of time, I think he’ll also be a sub to Fofana but he has a lot of work to do.
      The question mark remains Loftus-Cheek. Will he remain as an attacking midfielder even though he has 0 creativity ? Or will he be part of the double-pivot even though he lacks to workrate and stamina ?

      1. My guess is Benny is going to be a sale to Arabia, which will serve to 1. balance the squad numbers and 2. replenish the coffers. RLC is going to be deployed deeper this season. It will be a fight between him and Reijnders to pair with Fofana. Musah and Pobega plus the “loser” of the battle will be the subs. Adli will also be sold as unneeded. Four players (Fofana, Reijnders, Musah, Pobega) for two positions. Done.

  29. Excellent signing, though I do feel that we could’ve wrapped this up earlier if we’re going to pay 25M anyway, but still, glad that it’s done and over with.

    I think the mercato should be done – apart from maybe some necessary sales. I don’t expect any further purchase and this would be quite alright.

    Now all eyes should focus on Theo and Maignan’s renewal, if they don’t sign by the end of the month, we’re in for yet another saga next summer..

  30. FINALLY – this deal is done

    Paid more than we wanted but he was a NEED and what I and many others have been saying over and over is – when you have a NEED – sometimes you have to pay more. Money well spent. Should have happened a month ago and likely would have been for a bit cheaper – but we procrastinated and low balled and let other teams come in and jump the price. And if not for Fofana’s ONLY desire to play for us for LESS money (extremely rare today) it would have been another target list. So TY Fofana!

    Funny how the Redbird lovers who were screaming NOT to pay over like 12-17M? because he’s in the last year of his contract – when the rest of us were saying we absolutely should – now have switched their position and are praising what the rest of us said all along and where we ended up LOL. Good times.

    Anyways – solid signing. About fkn time! It may force Benny’s departure as RLC Fofana Reindjers and Musah (not sure why) are the players the club is banking on in the double pivot – with Benny, Pobega and Adli on the outside looking in. So a sale to Saudia Arabia seems likely to balance out the net spend. Let’s hope not

    Hopefully we can add more before the window closes – rather have Abraham over Jovic. Cheisa would be nice but is a luxury w our new formation and Salad seems to be a better fit for Fonseca. Samardvic would be nice too – if we can dump Pobega – huge upgrade there.

    Lets Keep spending that money Gerry!!!

  33. Finally finally, it has happened. Last week I told some of you supporters to keep your fingers cross and see what the management is going to do before we can talk and called them names.

    1. LMAO 🤣🤣 😂🤣😂. Bro I’m pretty sure almost no one here has seen him play 😂😂😂😂. This is why it’s so hilarious. I genuinely don’t understand what’s going on but it’s fun to read

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