According to what is told by Tuttosport, currently, there are only five Italian players in Milan’s squad, namely Marco Sportiello, Matteo Gabbia, Alessandro Florenzi, Filippo Terracciano, and Riccardo Sottil.
Aside from Gabbia, who has now returned to Conceição’s rotations, none are starters. And this, in the long run, has proven to be a weakness. Without going back to the Berlusconi era, even the team that won the league title with Pioli had Italian players as reference points: Davide Calabria, Sandro Tonali, Alessio Romagnoli, and Alessio Florenzi himself.
It’s no secret that Milan, already since the end of 2024, has been strongly tracking Samuele Ricci. The midfielder will almost certainly leave Torino at the end of the season. Milan is in pole position, but will have to deal with Cairo’s asking price: 35 to 40 million euros. Not a small sum for a club that, without Champions League revenues, will likely have to conduct a zero-balance transfer window—therefore financing purchases through specific sales (and Milan has several players out on loan who could bring in between 40 and 60 million euros if their buyout clauses are activated).
That said, Ricci remains the number one target not just for the midfield, but for the entire transfer campaign, which should not revolutionize the Rossoneri squad, but simply strengthen it. In other departments, Diego Coppola from Verona is being followed for the defense (where Pietro Comuzzo is also highly appreciated, though more expensive), and Lorenzo Lucca from Udinese for the attack. But his cost—30 to 35 million euros—could be higher than a possible purchase of Abraham from Roma (Saelemaekers is involved in the talks).
Elia Caprile from Cagliari is also liked for the goalkeeper position, in case of an unexpected breakdown with Maignan. The dreams? Riccardo Orsolini from Bologna and Federico Chiesa from Liverpool—but in that case, an exit in attack would be needed, with Chukwueze and Okafor (almost certainly returning from Napoli) being the main suspects.
