The former sporting director of Torino has revealed that he agreed a deal with AC Milan over the sale of Andrea Belotti a few years ago.
Belotti ended up joining Roma over the summer after his contract with Torino expired, but he seemed to be linked with a move to Milan every transfer window, fuelled by the fact he is a boyhood Rossoneri fan and his idol is Andriy Shevchenko .
It has already been well documented that Milan tried to sign him in 2017 under Chinese ownership, when Belotti had just finished a season with 26 goals in Serie A, but Urbano Cairo – the president of Torino – famously requested €100m.
However, the follow summer in 2018 when Paolo Maldini and Leonardo were in charge, Belotti was very close to joining Gennaro Gattuso’s side as Gianluca Petrachi – the former sporting director of Torino – told Sportitalia.
“The operation that was to bring Belotti to Milan in the summer of 2018, an operation worth around 58 million euros, was not carried out,” he said (via PianetaMilan).
“Why did it fail? Because the ‘Big Boss’ [Cairo] decided not to sell him anymore. It was basically done, I had already secured Duván Zapata. They offered the player a five-year contract worth around four million euros per year.”
Cairo pretty much destroyed Belotti career with that 100 million price tag.
So you’re saying he’s not scoring at the bigger club (than Torino) he’s at now, or ever scoring for the national team, because he’s sad he didn’t move to a bigger club a few years earlier? Belotti is a bullet dodged in my opinion. Glad we didn’t spend 60m euro on him, because that would have been insane.
Yes that’s exactly what he’s saying. By Blocking any transfer away from that dumpster fire in Turin he ruined his career. You must have just started watching football to have not noticed how years of bad play turned a once dynamic scorer into what he is today.
Yes thank you for saying this.
Would be good for both parties.