AC Milan have made a verbal offer for Lille defender Tiago Santos ahead of the summer transfer window, we can exclusively reveal.
While a lot of the media attention surrounding Milan pertains to the search for a new head coach, the management must simultaneously scout out potential deals and opportunities to bolster the squad in view of the summer.
One of the roles that is being looked at is the full-back positions, more specifically on the right side where there appears to be more doubts than certainties at the moment.
The current options
While the purchase of a right-back might not feel like it is among the priorities heading into the summer because of the other positions that need to be addressed, Geoffrey Moncada and his team often move in surprising ways, like with the acquisition of Filippo Terracciano in January.
Looking at the current squad, we start with Davide Calabria. The captain is tied to a contract until June 2025 and talks over the renewal of his deal are apparently underway, but there are rumours that he wants his pay doubling amid some shaky performances.
Alessandro Florenzi has a contract expiring on 30 June 2025 and it seems like Milan have not yet made a final decision on the former Roma man, who joined the Rossoneri in August 2021, also given the significant salary (around €3m net per season, with no Growth Decree) that he receives.
Pierre Kalulu can be counted among the options for the right side of the defence, but it must be remarked that Stefano Pioli changed his primary position to centre-back, and he is struggling to stay fit leading to suggestions the club may cash in for a capital gain.
Alex Jimenez has played mostly for the Primavera this season and is out until June, but he is also considered among the options at right-back for years to come, especially given that reliable sources have spoken of a deal reached to make his loan from Real Madrid permanent. He could however form part of the U23 team in Serie C.
Then, we come to Filippo Terracciano who arrived from Hellas Verona for around €4.5m, but not much has been seen from him recently as he continues to struggle for opportunities. The 20-year-old is considered above all as a wild card. He can play on the right, his natural role, but can fill in at left-back, centre-back or even in midfield.
An opportunity emerges
According to the information we have received from sources close to the situation, Milan are interested in signing Lille defender Tiago Santos this summer.
Not only that, but we have been informed that Milan submitted a verbal proposal of €12m to sign the 21-year-old, which also includes a 20% resale clause in favour of the Ligue 1 side.
It is not yet clear whether that amount is deemed enough by Lille, but the player has made it known that he wishes to move on in the summer and try a new challenge.
Santos spent the majority of his youth career in the academy of Sporting CP where he actually played alongside Rafael Leao. Stints with Oeiras, Sacavenense followed, and then he went to Estoril in 2021, getting promoted to the senior side for the 2022–23 season.
His performances for them drew the interest of other clubs and Wikipedia recall that during the 2023 summer window Benfica had a €5m bid accepted by Estoril, yet Sporting CP were able to invoke an ‘anti-rival’ clause in his deal.
That particular clause stated that Sporting were owed €20m if the player was sold to Benfica or Porto and thus the move collapsed. Milan are well aware about the Lisbon club taking legal matters seriously, as the Leao fine saga demonstrates.
In July 2023, Santos signed a five-year contract with Lille who got him for €6.5m and he has since established himself as a starter for Les Dogues, with 39 appearances to his name this season, including three goals and two assists.
Santos also has a couple of caps for the Portugal U21 national team and is being tipped to make the jump to the senior side in time, so if Milan are able to wrap up a deal they could have the right-back role sorted for years to come.
This is… Out of nowhere.
Is he good? I don’t follow Ligue 1 so I don’t know. But Moncada’S link at France should be good enough to know this kid is a quality.
But if he is really bought then he should be significantly better than Terraciano and Jimenez. If not then this only shows that the management have no vision.
He is more than good he is like di leronso of Napoli
Better give Jimenez experience through playing against the weakest Serie A teams.
Wouldn’t it be better to sign Belanova instead, he is Italian, stronger , faster , bigger and defensively and offensively better, and he is our youth team product…
Most likely you never heard about Thiago Santos prior to reading this article but right away you know that Bellanova is better than him in everything.
BTW Bellanova is not good defensively, that’s why he plays better as a wingback instead of a full back.
Inter had an option to sign permanently for peanuts and passed on him.
I just don’t comment on things I don’t know, I have known him since Sporting, I have seen him play with Lille, we need more Italian players, that’s why the team lacks leadership, to many foreigners, dynasties are built on solid Italian players, or home grown players , they keep the foreigners in check, and give more to the team. as they are more connected to the club, they are not just connected to the pay check…
Real Madrid has only 1 Spanish player in their starting lineup and they are doing just fine.
Milan had plenty of Italian players in the early 2000’s and they built a dynasty of only 1 scudetto.
There are good players and bad players, there are good coaches and bad coaches. Nationally plays no role.
The Italian national team is all Italians and they have missed the last 2 world cups.
I’m not saying that I want a team only with Italians but your arguments are poor. Real Madrid has always been full of foreign players, unlike Milan. Milan has a tradition of Italian players and Serie A is home of Italian players. Milan played three UCL finals in the 2000s, winning two. Italy is reigning champion of Europe.
A fair point with caveats. Real Madrid has a lot of spanish players in their bench. They also have foreign players (Modric, Kroos) who have been with the club for a very long time (10+ years), and are no different than a Spanish player in attachment to the club and keeping things in check (think of a player like Zanetti for Inter).
As a rule of thumb, what Usman said is valid. There are of course always caveats (e.g. Bellanova is a self-declared Inter fan that left Milan Primavera on a free to join Bordeaux … I’d take someone like Kjaer over Bellanova every day of the week)
Inter seem to be doing fine with Italian core.
Define early 2000s? Because you’re dangerously close to 2003 and the start of the best team in the world for 5 years. In that period we should have had 4 out of 5 CLs and only those ridiculous Deportivo and Liverpool games spoilt the party. We were also robbed in the 06 semi final against Barca with Shevchenko’s header. Despite that we were the best team for 5 years, that’s a pretty fine dynasty!
You are correct about this Madrid side, but all the greatest Madrid teams in history, like Milan Man Utd l, Liverpool, Barca and Munich, all have a spine of homegrown players. This Madrid side isn’t up there with Cristiano or Zidane’s teams
@Drew. Correct re CL, but that same team should have won more scudetti. In fact, it underlines Ancelotti’s record of being better in cups than league (although that has been shifting a bit in the last few years).
Didn’t inter have the same Italian core last season when they finished only 2 points ahead of Milan and 20 points behind Napoli?
Same Napoli team that just like Milan had only few Italians in the squad.
Take their best players away from them, who are all foreign, and see inter fight for the conference league.
2 of the last 3 scudetto winners had 2 or 3 Italian players contributing at most, no one made a fuss about the lack of Italians, but inter wins with maybe 5 Italians contributing and the reason for it is the Italian core. 😂😂😂
Didn’t they play CL final last season and had a good chance of winning against the billion dollar City? Quite impressive considering the “overrated” Italian core.
And they could’ve won it if it wasn’t for one of “their best foreign players” Lukaku channelling his inner Maldini in front of City’s goal. They even did it with the likes of Acerbi and Darmian, players we deemed not good enough and surplus.
@Ted , didn’t Milan with no Italian core players played in the semi final of the same UCL last season? BTW Milan played in the 1st game of the semi-final without one of their best foreign players, Leao, and played without another one of their best foreign players Bennacer in the 2nd semi-final game.
Lukaku was a bench player at Inter last season, far from one of their best foreign players.
But what is the excuse that that Italian core at inter couldn’t do anything vs Napoli where outside of Di Lorenzo and couple other back ups they had all foreign players?
Remind me again, who did we lose to in that semi final? And back then we still had most Serie A players in our starting rooster especially midfield (Tonali, Bennacer, Krunic all came from certain Seria clubs), not a bunch from foreign league. You see, I said it before – I don’t mind if they’re not Italians although there are many talented around to look at. At least try and buy in Serie A as players are already settle to the league, langauge and culture. The 11 new imports we got this year are all from different foreign leagues. And imo that is one of biggest reasons for our problems. Along with the lack of improvements in most important roles and having experimental yet limited coach.
The players that improved inter from a team that finished 4th last season with a “Italian core” to a scudetto winner this season:
Thuram, outside of serie A,
Pavard, outside of serie A,
Sommer , outside of serie A,
even Bisseck, outside of serie A. Those are the new starters that improved their team, not the serie A bums or the Italian players they picked up on loan that were sitting on the bench.
Some people are just obsessed with bellow average Italian and serie A players.
Bisseck is no starter with 14 apperances. Thuram and Pavard are already proven players. GK is usually easiest to replace. This is no overhaul. This is adding puzzles in form of quality, ready players, something that I am talking about constantly. Not some lowball, cheap “could bees” and “possibly undervalued talents” which our transfer strategy revolves around. Puli is our only true reinforcement, a ready player, a missing RW puzzle. The rest not so much. Yet.
Yes and the reason the Italian national team failed is because the you g Italian players aren’t given a chance. I agree I think it’s bigger than just nationality. It’s Italian football in general. Italian coaches are too scared to play youth. They make one mistake eg. Terracciano and they don’t play again. Plus Italian football fans have no patience. Hype up a player then they make a mistake because they young and everyone jumps on them. Then we wonder why no young Italians develop. I want a foreign coach who isn’t afraid to play youngsters and develop our youth. We have some nice promising Italians in our youth setup be greta to see them come through.
I am Italian and watching Milan win is a priority. Watching Milan win with a core of Italians brings even more pride. Plus I feel the team has more cohesion and players more attached to the badge when they are Italian and have more of a connection to a great Italian dynasty like Milan.
Not saying all foreign players are disconnected. Theo and Adli love the badge and the team. But I would like to see more Italians in serie a in general!
Here here. ACM is lacking identity with an overwhelming amount of foreign players.
Pioli should draft a few of the youngsters in for the remaining games. If they can get to the youth European final then they deserve a chance.
And Bellanova came up through our youth system. Nothing says OOPS more than paying top dollar for someone you let go for peanuts. Another reason they won’t consider him.
Reference your comment mate about Ancelotti’s Milan, I have a theory. This was the time 4231 started to come in through the likes of Mourinho. Silvio always insisted Milan play with two strikers and that always Made us beatable with the numbers in midfield. The best thing Liverpool did in Istanbul was Kewell getting injured because they were 442. Rafa then brought on Hamann who changed the fame and we got overrun. At that time the 4312 was very open to clever coaches. We all remember those daft losses away to udinese which we should have been all over
In my humble opinion, Milan lost that final because the players thought they had it in the bag at half time. Players are on record saying as much. No side of note plays 4-4-2 or less so 4-3-1-2 now. If those formations are so great the best managers would be using them. Simple as that. If anything, the two striker formation relevant at the moment is 3-5-2/3-4-1-2.
Carletto still plays the 4-3-1-2 . This Madrid side has 2 wingers(or quasi wingers) up front , no center forward and Bellingham as the new Kaka in the modern number 10(false 9) position.
I must say I thought this formation would work well for Milan with Okafor/Pulisic in the number 10 role and Leao & Chuk on the wings,but I’m yet to see it.
Id we want a right back i would consider us getting Yukinari Sugawara, he seems like a fairly prolific and aggresive right back and his contract will expire in 2025.
For right back I prefer Lutsharel Geertruida from feyenoord who is better faster stronger can play as CB good header and at least 30m
I’m a Feyenoord fan and trust me, he is a stupid player. Indeed a strong and fast player, but at a higher level he is not gonna make it.
Based on his YouTube highlights he reminds me of Sergino Dest.
Does anyone know if he can actually defend?
Ok . Lets fill all squad with RB . ACM already have calabria,florenzi,terraciano,kalulu ( can play RB ) , also jimenez in academy. Better use that money for theo vice or ACM plan use florenzi forever as LB ??
I like this idea. But remember we also need at least 7 wingers on both sides.
Here’s a question. Just drinking my morning coffee and looking at Atalanta. Would you rather be in Milan’s posistion with UCL pretty much guaranteed or be in the Coppa Italia final, EL semi with a good chance of reaching the final and still be in contention for UCL next year via the league or EL?
waste of money. we have calabria, florenzi, terracciano & Kalulu for rb. and some kids in the prima.. Buy ST, a good one, a DM and CB then start looking at other stuff
Kalulu, Terra, Jimenez all RB isn’t enough?
if this Tiago Santos isn’t upgrade of Cala/ Flo then better get Bellanova or Kayode, same price tag, same potential, Italian, more league exp.
Moncada isn’t worldclass scout if he can’t build Italian network just like he did in France