AC Milan completed the sixth summer signing and finally solved the issue of the center forward, which had been open for months.Swiss striker Noah Okafor from Red Bull Salzburg is coming to San Siro, as today everything was agreed with the club from the city of Mozart. Okafor will fly to Milan today, undergo medical examinations and sign the contract tomorrow, and after that he will join the team on the American tour.For months, Milan considered various options for the striker. The wishes of the previous management headed by Paolo Maldini were the experienced Roberto Firmino and the young Folarin Balogun. The first was not wanted by the American owners, the second was too expensive after the goal-scoring explosion on loan from Arsenal to Reims.Then Maldini left, and other people took over the transfer policy. And Milan began the market scan. The Rossoneri wanted Alvaro Morata from Atletico Madrid, Gianluca Scammaca from West Ham and Mehdi Taremi from Porto but they were all too expensive. The choice fell on Okafor.##NAJAVA_MECA_7383439##The Nigerian-born Swiss caught the eye of Milan’s leaders in the autumn when the two clubs met in the Champions League. In the first round of the group stage, Salzburg met the Rossoneri, and the match ended 1:1. The scorer of the goal for the home team was Okafor, who drove Milan’s defender Pierre Kalulu crazy throughout the match. Since then, the Salzburg striker has been on Milan’s radar.Although at the beginning of the transfer window it was speculated that Red Bull wanted 30,000,000 euros for Okafor, in the end the transfer was completed for half the price. Milan will pay Salzburg between 13,000,000 and 15,000,000 euros with bonuses included in compensation. Negotiations have accelerated in recent days when Juventus showed serious interest in Okafor.The striker grew up in Basel, from where he moved to Salzburg in January 2020 as a 20-year-old for 11,200,000 euros and became the most expensive signing in the history of the Austrian club. He played well until the end of the season, but already in the following season he had many problems with injuries and scored only six goals in 29 matches in all competitions. In the previous two seasons, he established himself in the attack of the Austrian team and had double-digit goalscoring results.🚨🔴 Double signing very close for Milan, reports @MatteMoretto — Noah Okafor (22) signs the contract tomorrow, whilst Samuel Chukwueze (24) is one step away also. pic.twitter.com/Y1K7f7yL2B— EuroFoot (@eurofootcom) July 21, 2023 In Milan, he will replace Zlatan Ibrahimovic and will compete with veteran Olivier Giroud for the position of starting centre-forward. Okafor will be the sixth summer signing for Milan, who with his transfer reached almost 70,000,000 euros spent on reinforcements in this transfer window. Previously, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Christian Pulisic were bought from Chelsea for 20,000,000 euros each, Alkmaar’s midfielder Tijjani Reijnders for 19,000,000 euros, while young winger Luca Romero from Lazio and reserve goalkeeper Marco Sportiello from Atalanta came as free agents.It is expected that Milan will now devote themselves as much as possible to bringing in the right winger, and negotiations with Villarreal over Samuel Chukwueze have been going on for weeks. Milan have an agreement with the fast-footed Nigerian, and the distance in negotiations with the Spanish club, which is asking for 30,000,000 euros, has decreased. The Rossoneri are currently offering 28,000,000 euros with bonuses included.
