Leao has gone to Galatasaray for 45 million euros, and Aston Villa would not raise their offer

Rafael Leao is a Galatasaray player. AC Milan put out the confirmation on Sunday, two days after he said goodbye to his teammates at San Siro and flew to Istanbul, and it closed seven seasons at a club he joined as a 20-year-old from Lille.

“The Club thanks Rafa for the professionalism and passion shown in the Rossoneri shirt over these seven seasons together, during which he contributed to winning the Scudetto in the 2021/22 season and the 2024 Italian Supercup,” the statement read. Milan did not print a number next to it.

The number, and where it came from

The package is worth about 45 million euros: roughly 38 million fixed, further bonuses, and a 20 per cent cut for Milan on any future sale. Football Italia calculated the accounting profit at 43.9 million euros, which is what a seven-year contract does to a balance sheet once the transfer fee has been written down to almost nothing.

Leao signed for four years, to 2030, on a basic net salary reported at 10 million euros a season. That figure is the whole story of where he ended up.

Aston Villa were there first

Villa spent weeks on this. They talked to Milan, they structured an offer around a loan with an obligation to buy, and at one point Leao had decided he wanted the Premier League. Milan were holding out for something near 50 million. Villa would not go there, and on wages they stopped at 7 million euros a season against Galatasaray’s 10.

So Villa pulled out, Tottenham looked and did not move, and a player who wanted England is going to Turkey instead. He will see Villa anyway: Galatasaray host them in the Champions League league phase this season.

What Milan are actually losing

Eighty goals and 65 assists in 291 appearances, and the 2021-22 season when he scored 11, set up 10 and was voted Serie A’s player of the year while Milan won their first title in 11 years. For a stretch there he was the most watchable footballer in Italy.

The stretch did not last. Ruben Amorim, appointed in June after Milan finished fifth and missed out on the Champions League, made it plain that Leao was not part of what he wanted to build. Leao made it equally plain that he wanted out. Once both those things are true, the transfer is a formality and the only argument left is about price.

He cried saying goodbye, by his own account, and told Milan supporters that the love he has for the club will never end. Players say that. It is usually truer than the fee suggests.

Galatasaray keep spending

Only Victor Osimhen, at 75 million euros from Napoli, has cost Galatasaray more. Okan Buruk’s side won a fourth straight Turkish title last season and go into the Champions League league phase with Barcelona, Aston Villa, Feyenoord and Stuttgart at home, and Paris Saint-Germain, Sporting, Lille and AEK Athens away.

That is the pitch that beat Villa’s, and it did not need to be complicated. More money, and a team already in the competition Milan cannot get into.

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