AC Milan have invested a lot in players from abroad, making use of the Growth Decree, and that focused has been evident ever since the summer of 2019. In fact, no other Serie A team has invested as much in players from abroad.
For those of you who are unfamiliar with the Growth Decree, it’s essentially a tax relief which allows the clubs to pay less in player wages. For an Italian player with €2m net in wages, the gross figure would be around €3.7m. For a player from abroad, however, the same salary would cost around €2.6m gross.
In recent weeks, there has been a lot of speculation regarding the Growth Decree and whether it will be abolished or not. We discussed the matter at length in one of our articles last month, which you can read here.
According to today’s edition of Tuttosport (via MilanNews), no other Italian club has exploited the relief like Milan. Since the 2019 summer window, the Rossoneri have invited just 16.4% of their total spending in players from Italy and foreigners that are no longer eligible for the Growth Decree.
In the last transfer window, the summer that is, Milan invested almost €130m in new signings and only three of them were domestic signings: Marco Sportiello, Luka Jovic, and Luka Romero. All three were free transfers, it should be added.
Completely reasonable from economics point of view as I operate in similar profession. But one mustn’t forget the tradition. And that is strong homegrown core. There are many upcoming talents from Primavera and we need someone (a coach) that will introduce them properly to first team. Other concern is, this management is all about capital gains and it will be even more evident once they start building stadium and debts. I expect the good old Fester’s way of balancing the books.
Milan’s transfer talks begin with the Growth Decree. If the player is not eligible he goes into the trash bin. Because in player acquisition money seems to be everything. Just look at Jovic FFS.