AC Milan are offering to make Marcus Thuram one of their highest paid players to try and convince him to join the club, a report claims.
Today’s edition of Tuttosport (via PianetaMilan) confirms that Milan want to seize the opportunity to sign Thuram on a free given he will not be renewing his deal with Borussia Mönchengladbach which expires at the end of the month.
The offer that Milan have put forward is worth €4-4.5m net per season plus bonuses which puts him around equal to the fee that Theo Hernández and Ismaël Bennacer receive at Milan.
The economic aspect is not the only one they will focus on though, as they will also offer him the promise of greater playing time which he might not get as PSG, as he would have a starting spot with Olivier Giroud the new back-up.
The alternative to Thuram is Gianluca Scamacca, but Milan believe Thuram is the perfect profile for the 4-2-3-1 and 4-3-3 they will play next season.
Their optimism could be boosted by the fact PSG have also entered into discussions with Crystal Palace’s Wilfried Zaha, who is also out of contract and who more or less plays in the same position.
The French striker is extremely flattered by the offer put forward and the possibility of being a guaranteed starter tempts him, with a decision expected soon.
I really wish we could land him, but I don’t understand the playing time argument. PSG lost Messi, they will probably sell Ekitike and Neymar according to many reports. They will reportedly sign Asensio but they still need a starter for their offensive front. So PSG can offer a better salary AND playing time. But maybe we can convince him by telling him that we will build a new stadium.
Also, Mbappé has only one year remaining in his contract since he didn’t activate the option for one additional year after 2023/24. There are speculations from France that he could leave this summer.
In your comment lies a kernel of truth that many have been trying to point out about RedBird. PSG, one of the wealthiest clubs on the planet who are constantly vying for top honors, despite their not winning UCL, and they are selling two of their most valuable players this season. This should show that building the new stadium, expanding the brand, selling smartly and reinvesting, and most import let keeping the club in the black will translate to prolonged success on the pitch. Financial health does not need to come at the expense of sporting success or vise versa. Whatever our opinions might be let’s HOPE that RedBird do in fact usher in a new era of profitability and success for Milan.
I hope you’ll be right. I would never speak of PSG as a model though. In France it’s common knowledge that this team is lame af and everybody is making fun of them. They only stockpile famous players for commercial exposure. They fire their coach every year. They fail to reach UCL expectations every year.
But, once again, there is a difference between being PSG and spending wisely, let’s say by going after free agent Gundogan, or established players like Berardi and Milinkovic-Savic who would have helped us growing and who seem affordable this summer, at least in our range if Jerry wasn’t cheap.
Flossonero, again a comment that is totally useless because you made half of it up. Who is selling 2 of their most valuable assets? Messi contract expired, the fans booed him, he left. Neymar, he would stay at PSG but they want him out, they don’t want him at PSG anymore as he is acting like a primadonna, going to carnival instead of the match, sister birthday etc. They are NOT selling him because they HAVE TO. You are making false claims about something you obviously had 0 idea about just to prove a non-existing point.
And that was the same for Hakimi, Lo Celso, Nkunku and Keylor Navas I suppose. The point is the wealthiest and best clubs DO sell players and they DO take advantage of free transfers. Pointing to either of these things to suggest RedBird are “cheapskates”, especially as they lineup a one billion dollar investment for a new stadium(which ironically should have happens under Berlusconi but didn’t), is misguided.
Look at Napoli…offloaded two of their bang on starters from the previous season, acquired Kvara, Kim and Anguissa among others, ended the window with +4m (Milan -56m), and only have a Scudetto to show for it.
You can have a strategy of recruiting prime free agents when you’re a prime team. Aston Villa and Roma beat us as of now. And stop with the new stadium bs. Of course it’s important, but are we supposed to wait until its inauguration in 2028 or 2029?
You use the Napoli example, right. How many teams did win a scudetto in Italy or a domestic championship abroad in the past years following this model of selling your best players and buying no names? It is not a sustainable model for winning.
What? Hakimi was the only one that was sold for money by Inter. Leipzig is a selling club, of course they will sell Nkunku. Keylor Navas He was literally transferred out of Real and PSG because he was a backup to younger players. 😀
Stadium investment will directly increase the value of their asset, they will profit from it in the long run. Building a stadium is not a gift from Redbird to fans, it is a business decision that will be done via a loan that Milan will pay from its profits, not Redbird. Whose investment exactly? You think Redbird will give their money to build the stadium? Why the stadium should have come in Berlusconi era, Italian clubs don’t own their stadiums or they did not. Only Juventus had the finances to build it and that was not 20 years ago, and they had to sell the name to Allianz to even be able to finance it. This is a new thing that Italian clubs are exploring, nobody did that 20 or 30 years ago because it was not necessary. The rules of financing were different, owners could have invested, now they can’t.
Also, who said that the best clubs shouldn’t get free players, but Milan has an idiotic policy with a wage cap and offering less wages to the players. Find another club that does that. Real Madrid signed Rudiger for free (he got 9M NET A YEAR and around 30M sign on fee). They offered most money and signed them, Alaba (including his father and agent) got 30M€ + he got huge wages. Their CB paring was a “free transfer” but they got them. Milan is just offering, I don’t see them signing those players. Milan offered 3.5M to Ndi*cka who already had a 4M offer from Roma. That will work 100%.
Napoli got lucky with signings, next window they won’t. You think you can sell top players and buy new ones every season and compete for titles? That happens once in 10 years, that you get that lucky. Moncada discovered Mbappe and Bernardo Silva, but I don’t see him doing that again, you know. You don’t get lucky every year or 2. Where is that 17-year-old kid he brought in and is in the first team already? Just proves you sometimes get lucky; doesn’t mean you are a miracle maker.
This guy again…. next.
I must be talking to a bunch of 25 year olds who only know history and tradition of Milan from YouTube videos and their parents stories. Berlusconi was supposed to be building us a new stadium in 2015 but he scrapped it. From Bleacher Report 2015:
“AC Milan needed this stadium. It would have gone a long way toward improving the team’s finances and would have provided the kind of atmosphere that the Juventus Stadium does for the Bianconeri. Instead, Berlusconi proved once again that what he likes is more important to him than what’s good for his club.
It’s yet another sign that Milan needs a new majority owner in order to truly regain its place in the game.”
His sentimentality hamstrung Milan’s finances and were truly the beginning of the Banter era which the subsequent Chinese ownership only worsened by doing what? Spending exorbitant sums on transfers of well established players who were in or past their prime and not investing in stadium infrastructure and TV rights. So far Elliot and RedBird are doing everything right to drag Milan and their fan base kicking and screaming into the 21st century. The takeover of Elliot and now RedBird is what will see Milan join the sporting elite of football again.
@ Flossonero
“I must be talking to a bunch of 25 year olds who only know history and tradition of Milan from YouTube videos and their parents stories. Berlusconi was supposed to be building us a new stadium in 2015 but he scrapped it.”
I wish I was 25 yo again haha but no. Berlusconi always has been a politician, saying what the fans wanted to hear. See the quotes today from SempreMilan. He actually used Milan to achieve his political agenda back in the days. So he invested his colossal fortune to first bring guys like Gullit, Rijkaard and Van Basten, then the rest is history. But his personal goal matched with ours, to win trophies. It’s the same ambition than City, PSG or Newcastle today. The famous “soft power”. Jerry’s ambition is profits. He doesn’t care about winning trophies and he would be happy as long as the team is qualified regularly for UCL and build a new stadium to maximize his initial investment.
So true fratello. He’s so childish. Remember when Mbappé wasn’t happy because the team played poorly? Presumably because Verratti who smokes like a cheminée and Neymar who goes to parties during the week (a friend of mine played once at Counter Strike online and Neymar was in the game, 4 am the night before a league game) are not acting like professionals. Neymar answered this by posting a story in McDonald’s. What a joke.
Fosonero, you’re comparing apples to oranges just to further the hidden point that Maldini didn’t sell or refresh the squad when he was director. Maybe if you had said Napoli it would have made sense because their philosophy is one of balancing the books. And even in that case they’re only making money from Kim and Kvara which would be a significant drop in quality.. Oshimen was expensive to begin with. We could say the same about selling our players we got for cheap but again we’ll lose quality. PSG has starting caliber players on the bench they can offload. It’s not the same. And I haven’t even gone into the revenue gap
PSG can’t offer him more playing time because he’s not good enough.
A team fighting to win the CL won’t have Thuram as a starting striker. Nothing he has showed so far suggests he would be worthy of that, and he’s not that young anymore, so there’s not much room for growth.
Thuram is playing regularly with France, not as a starter since Mbappé and Giroud/Kolo Muani hold the spots, but he’s getting plenty of playing time. He’s not in the mold of Messi or Mbappé of course, but he would be very useful to this PSG team and in my opinion he could be a starter.
Also, one difference with Milan is that PSG can tell him: “we are playing to win UCL”.
I’m just trying to assess the situation, of course I’m rooting for him to join Milan.
He’s a winger, not a central striker. He’s more likely to play centrally for Milan.
Logical comment. We’ll see what happens. We’re not even in July yet. It could be that PSG have designs on other forwards and there is not reason we would be aware of them.
That said, Ekitike is in and of himself an interesting idea. Why not sign him if Thuram goes to PSG? I be he can be transferred for around 20m, which is 20m more than Thuram, but considering that all other players with his profile are going for 35-40m, it is a discount. The fact that he scored 5 goals in the league should not raise alarm bells as he was behind all of the aforementioned stars. It could be a bargain now, before he goes to some mid-table French team and scores 15 goals next season and skyrockets his value.
What does new stadium, has to do with him joining us?
I thought highest paid player in the world
Tuttosport 🤡
My sentiments as well. One of these days all Italian clubs will follow Milan’s model, since they cannot continue being in the red. The rest of the world will slowly catch up, these expenditure is not sustainable.
What is not sustainable? Real Madrid is a pretty sustainable club and they buy 50-70M 15–16-year-olds almost every year. Every 2 seasons a 100M transfer. What are you talking about, who will follow this model exactly? Atalanta and similar clubs yes.
Real Madrid have huge brand, they have huge commercial revenue. We are still far behind, this is why Cardinale aim to build Milan brand (the sacking of Maldini hurt the brand though) by making commercial partnership with NY Yankees, etc.
Don’t you think Real Madrid has a huge commercial success because they won five UCL in the last decade? Or is it because they sell their best players and recruit cheap unknown guys and free agents? We don’t have the same ability to recruit the biggest stars yet of course, but we were so close from Milan being a UCL contender again under Maldini’s guidance. Just a few pieces missing and now it looks like a step back.
Their huge brand was already built before their last 5 CL triumph, it’s the huge brand that allow them to spend money to get these 5 CL triumph.
I agree with Yelnats here. Madrid’s brand was built not with these last 5 CL triumphs, but with their FIRST 5 CL triumphs in the 1950s. Ever since then Madrid has been Madrid.
Milan was a huge brand too. They vanished because they didn’t win anything and missed UCL for years. Notably because of the “parametro zero” strategy under Berlusconi. Signing free agents and cheap players. It reminds me of something we heard not long ago, like last week.
Milan brand was never near Madrid even with 2003 and 2007 UCL Triumph, we fail to capitalize on it. We had so many untapped potential commercial markets while Madrid work well to tap into theirs.
Winning trophies is necessary to develop brand but it is just one of the ingredients. Marketing effort/commercialization is needed to convert it into a brand that produce huge money.
Madrid makes 135m a year just from domestic TV rights. That’s double what Milan earn. In Spain foreign players pay 23% tax rate vs ~43% in England and Italy. That means madrid only has to dish out 10m for a player to net 8m a season while in Italy we would have to pay 15m for them to net the same amount. Milan revenue in 2023 299m, Madrid 807m. There’s levels to these operations that are beyond the field. This is why spending on stadium, media, and TV deals is so so so so much more important than dropping big money on a statement signing right now.
You should look at salariés that Madrid pay to the team and How much Milan paying even after most team renewed recently.
There is difference but you should also recognize we are debt free and if we have to win some cups every season and aim champions league we should spend now not after 3years. If we are not winning and playing quarters or semis atleast once in 2years, we will be difficult to holding the players because best players will ask for increase in salaries .
What Maldini has asked is logic, but people don’t understand all these.Maldini convinced all these players by the project and trust in him as a club legend who wants to bring back to old levels of Milan
All important players will earn atleast 2 or 3times what they are earning in Milan, but they choose Milan because they believe Milan can win something with increase in levels each year.
But we lack a lot in front 3, we should spend money
He makes random stuff up, don’t bother. To make money you need to invest money.
Flossonero, LOL. How can you be so ridiculous and just make up stuff?
Madrid’s revenue increase directly correlates to their sporting success which came from buying Ronaldo for 100M€, along with other players they purchased. In 2009 they had 400M in revenue, they bought Ronaldo for 100M, Kaka for 67M, Benzema for 35 and Alonso 35M. With 400M revenue it was impossible, right? After that their revenue doubled in the next xy years. What happened during those years? They had one of the best players ever in their team, they won just a few Champion Leagues and became the club that every player wants to join. Like every single one would leave their club for Madrid. You keep lying but numbers do not lie. You are comparing Milan today instead of comparing it to Madrid when they had similar revenues. Perez got the to be one of the richest clubs on the planet by investing in top players, winning and attracting sponsors through success and image of the club. Not by being cheap. Stop making random stuff up, you obviously have no clue what are you talking about.
What, you think Madrid got their revenue doubled up by investing in free players and being cheap with salaries? Or by bringing the best players on the planet and becoming the top team?
Wrong. There are four main reasons Real is so successful financially. Branding, television rights, sponsorships, and the preferential rules in Spain around taxes which I have already mentioned. Real sold their TV rights for over one billion dollars over 7 years in 2006, when AC Milan was still at the leak of their powers. From that point forward the gulf grew and grew until it became as massive as what it is today. England and a few other clubs saw what the future was abs Italy remained firmly in the old way of doing things. That’s why we are so far behind in revenues and that’s why we can’t afford to get the best players. We are now playing catch up and opposite to what you think we must first invest in the stadium, branding and TV rights and THEN we will have the power to persuade the best players in the world to join the club.
Milan could do the same but they did not. But that was just a different way of getting an investor in to cover debt. That is it. You probably don’t get that but that is how it is. Milan was trying the different way, it failed. What did Madrid do with that money? IT WAS TO CLEAR DEBT. How did they grow because of that? Explain. Again stupid claims without real explanation. 2006 and 2008 they had almost the same revenue. How much did Madrid get for TV rights in 2006, how much does Milan today? What will they invest in TV rights? 😀 To get more money you have to be interesting to fans, your club and the whole league. That will happen with better players. Period. As long as players go to PL and not Italy they will get 10 times more. Who will watch half done players that moved to Italy because they couldn’t play in PL and pay a lot for that? You talk about branding like that is something that in football that is done without having top players. What, you will increase the value of your brand by doing what? Milan’s revenue increased because we won the Serie A, we went into CL 2 years in a row. Not because some American created a bunch of new revenue. Most of the increase came from that money, fact. If we did not buy Leao for 40M when he was a talent, we wouldn’t have a 150M player now that won us the title. If you don’t invest you can forget it. Anyway, after the scudetto and with the top investment we got out of CL, only with Juventus point deduction it worked. You will see how it will continue, down the same path. Missing out on CL is a big % of the budget so that will put Milan backwards for 2-4 years.
And let’s say again. Madrid grew by investing, their brand became so popular because of top players like Ronaldo, not because they had 4 economists to cut costs and pray to god they qualify for CL. It is 100% clear, you can lie about it but selling the TV rights had nothing to do with them buying players or anything else. It was just to clear debt and start over. They purchased 200M worth of players 3 seasons later, without the TV rights money. They got 0 that year as those rights were sold. How do you explain that? Oh yeah, you don’t explain anything, just empty claims.
Oh yeah, and what is the growth decree? Is that something that Italian government created to increase Serie A ability to get new players? How much is the tax? 70%, how much? You lied again, most of the players that Milan signed pay 30%, not 44%. Correct? Why are lying again? Every comment has minimum of 2 lies.
Madrid could not have invested in the players BEFORE securing their TV deal. Simply not possible. The Ronaldo tax rule applies to foreign players paying only on 50% of salary but tax rate is 43%.
You might be an actual idiot. We saw what Berlusconi and Li did. Exactly what you say. Spend like crazy on players and you can see the results. Then Elliot takes over, improves the finances AND wins by focusing on young players and implementing a salary cap. Now RedBird continues the same strategy and you cry foul. It’s like your memory is only for one year at a time. Pull your head out of your ass for one minute and take a breath of fresh air. We are on a good path.
@Martin, I think you disregard a number of things here: 1. The tax regime in Spain, particularly in 2000-2010 was far more favorable than it was in Italy; 2. La Liga had a better TV deal than Serie A at the time; 3. La Liga clubs own their own stadiums. 20 years later 95% of Italian clubs are still renting the same crappy municipal stadium they were renting 20 years ago. 4. Madrid is the biggest club on the planet today, as it was in 2010, 2000, 1990, 1980, 1970, and 1960.
Also to Floss’s point, here is an article from a reputable source regarding Madrid’s sale of their TV rights for an astronomical sum.
bloomberg.com/news/articles/2006-11-20/real-madrid-agrees-to-sell-tv-rights-for-1-4-billion#xj4y7vzkg
Here is another one detailin Madrid’s revenues in general.
bleacherreport.com/articles/194885-why-real-madrid-is-so-rich
All this required was a 1 min Google search.
“And let’s say again. Madrid grew by investing, their brand became so popular because of top players like Ronaldo, not because they had 4 economists to cut costs and pray to god they qualify for CL.” Ronaldo alone is not enough to justify a 1.6 BILLION deal. The money was there before the player, anyway, as Ronaldo arrive in 2009. Also, were Maldini, Nesta, Stam, Cafu, Pirlo, Gattuso, Seedorf, Kaka, Shevchenko and Inzaghi not interesting???
Madrid are the Yankees of football. It’s a brand that has been built over 70 years. It’s why they got 1.6bn for their distribution rights. That will not happen in 2-3 years of any ownership. Sorry.
As a coda, the EPL didn’t become “The EPL” until Rupert Murdoch and BSkyB dropped the first 1bn euro league TV deal on them in the 2000s. Serie A had the best league and players in the 90s, so this was not a payment for preexisting quality (i.e., players before the money vs. money before the players). Murdoch was just keen enough to understand that the EPL had a larger ready-made audience than any other league (1/5th of the world was a former British colony and English is the most common international language), England had much better infrastructure than anywhere else, stadiums were newer, and most importantly, doing business is much easier in the UK as they are (or were then at least) more free market than anywhere else in Europe.
It is equal parts painful and funny watching someone being so confidently incorrect LOL
Sure, 90% of what you wrote is wrong. Like child level wrong.
He wouldn’t even score 15 goals in a whole season if he signs.
10-15 is enough for the vice-Giroud though 😉
Everything that Maldini was doing these years fixing salaries they will destroy, what will for example Theo say if this newcomer nonamer get more money than him. They will destroy perfect team atmosphere that Maldini made.
A starting spot with Giroud as backup ….. like how CDK became the starter with Diaz as backup.
He is soooo overrated. If Thuram is that good Bayern would have snatched him up immedietly. Scamaca pls.
This is basically the same offer for a player not dissimilar to Origi.
Should be putting this energy into bringing Gundolan and maybe putting our capital available (30-35 mil) to trying to attract Icardi, who will at least guarantee goals..
Lol so Thuram is going to just walk into the club and become the second highest earner. How would the players who worked hard to get up to half of that feel? Not buying this one either but it wouldn’t put it past the way we’re being operated now. “Free” right? They’re gonna learn what free means pretty quickly. Just like Dybala was “free” last year don’t mean he cheap. And this has a run on effect on renewing others as well as their recently negotiated contracts.
This is not the first time though, you are forgetting Origi?🤣 If i am not wrong, he was the second highest paid player in AC Milan, before Leao signed his new contract..
Point taken, forgot about Origoat. Well look at how that turned out 😂. If it was onw transfer I can say I’m thoroughly disappointed in from M&M it’s Origi
Yeah, but who exactly are we talking about? Leao, Theo and Bennacer are already near the top. Ibra is gone. Mike is about get a boost (if he agrees), Thiaw just signed and is still developing. Tomori gets around 3.5m. So who is sad? Saladmaker? Messias? Maybe the only two “underpaid” players that matter are Tonali and Calabria, and I’m sure the latter will never get 4m as when push comes to shove cheaper replacements of equal quality can be found. Either way, none of them are strikers and we need one, and I’m sure they current players also know this.
It is normal striker salary higher than GK , CB ,LB ,RB ,DMF . In many club striker ,winger,AMF that can score many goal + asist have high salary than other position. It is still worth even if we give marcus 5m euro nett because leao basically get 11m euro ( 5m euro fix salary + bonus 2m euro + 4m euro his debt to sporting pay by AC Milan) Leao debt 20m euro spread by 5 years in leao contract . If player like Origi ,Rebic,junior,saladmaker,florenzi jeaolus then let them go to other club because easy to find their replacement . Tonali will not jeaolus because he is mister milan ,Giroud mature and professional so im doubt he will be jealous to marcus his junior in french national team . Calabria & pobega ? Both will not jeaolus since no club will give them salary more than 3-4m euro nett