This entire summer, only two clubs showed a serious intention to bring Charles De Ketelaere – AC Milan and Leeds United. From the moment when the Yorkshiremen offered 37 million euros, Club Brugge seemed to be locked the super-talented Belgian to all offers significantly less than that amount and buried the key under the ground. But the Rossoneri are determined to force the Jupiler Pro League champions to open the lock and let the beast who is about to make his way to the top five leagues by launching a second bid of around 35 million euros. According to Gazzetta dello Sport, Paolo Maldini and Frederic Massara believe that it will be decisive.Almost a month ago, it was known that moving to Leeds will not happen. De Ketelaere rejected the Premier League club and said that he only wants to go to Milan. For years, if not a decade, the Rossoneri haven’t had a true playmaker, that original ‘number ten’ that Kaka was, and looking at what Kevin De Bruyne’s successor has been doing in Belgium, it seems that they will finally get one. A five-year contract with a salary between 2 million and 2 million euros per year is prepared for the 21-year-old ‘trequartista’.AC Milan are progressing in talks to sign Charles de Ketelaere. He’s the main target alongside Hakim Ziyech but Milan are really pushing with Club Brugge for CdK. 🚨🇧🇪 #ACMilanNo full agreement yet between clubs but Milan are confident, as player is keen on the move. pic.twitter.com/TpPLjhf2al— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 11, 2022 “In the past I was afraid of leaving Brugge, but now I feel I’m ready,” said De Ketelaere a couple of months ago in an interview with Eleven Sports.It is no wonder that he was afraid of a painful parting since he arrived at the Jan Breydel Stadium as a seven-year-old back in 2008. In fact, he learned everything he knows about football and with the ball right there. But after a season in which he helped with 14 goals and seven assists, i.e. was one of the keys to the third consecutive title of the blue and black, it is clear that it would be a shame to waste talent in the homeland, with due respect to Belgian football. Top five leagues is still the stage for the biggest European talents, and De Ketelaere certainly belongs to that group.What Milan will get if they sign this young footballer is an offensive player capable of ‘dancing’ from his own penalty area to the opponents’ penalty area. Il Rossoneri will get a player who will connect the ranks, distribute those final passes, but if necessary, he will also be able to cover the position of the classic striker. In his senior career so far, he played almost half of the games as a number nine and recorded the most impressive numbers in those circumstances. However, Pioli already sees him as a link between the central midfielders and forwards in his 4-2-3-1 formation.##NAJAVA_MECA_6511957##With quality, tactical intelligence, incredible progress, De Ketelaere impressed all the important management structures of Milan. Especially Maldini, who apparently got the go-ahead from management to take all the necessary steps to sign him. The first offer, including bonuses, reached 30 million euros, and the next one, as we said, will be close to 35 million. Only for a few players have the Rossoneri spent more money throughout their history. And of those, most were misses like Leonardo Bonucci, Lucas Paqueta, Andre Silva, Mattia Caldara and Krzysztof Piątek. However, in Milan, they hope that – like Filipe Inzaghi and Rui Costa – new reinforcements are on the way to leave their mark.Da Ketelaere already knows what number he will wear when he puts on the red and black jersey. The same as Romelu Lukaku in Inter – 90. So, if everything goes as the champion of Italy plans, in the next season of Serie A we will see the Milan derby embodied by the fight of the Belgian ‘nineties’.
