The Milanista club made the main acquisitions, albeit at a low cost, during a session marked by the economic crisis triggered by the coronavirus
Milan was the most active club in the Italian winter market, which was officially closed this Monday by signing Croatian expert Mario Mandzukic and young English defender Fikayo Tomori of Chelsea., to fight to the end for a league title that seemed impossible at the start of the campaign.
The Milanista club, owned by the American fund Elliott, made the most important purchases, albeit at a low cost, in a session marked by the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus in which Juventus or Inter Milan preferred not to invest.
Winter champion and two-point leader at Inter, Milan beefed up their roster with Mandzukic, arriving free, to offer coach Stefano Pioli an alternative to 39-year-old Swede Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The Croatian striker, a former player of Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid or Juventus, is a footballer of character and with a winning mentality, taking a Champions League, four Serie A titles, in addition to reaching the World Cup final. With Croatia in 2018, which France won.
For now, Mandzukic played 21 minutes against Atalanta and 18 minutes against Bologna to regain his form after nearly ten months of inactivity after leaving Al Duhail in Doha in March 2020.
Tomori also came on loan from Chelsea. He replaces the Argentinian Mateo Musacchio, who has made a stop at Lazio, and the French midfielder Soualiho Meite, from Torino.
Their direct rivals, Juventus and Inter, were on the lookout for potential market opportunities, but in the end they didn’t change their squad, which was already contemplating fighting for their goals.
Andrea Pirlo’s Juventus decided to hold off on signing an additional striker, while Inter explored the possibility of an exchange with Roma between Chilean Alexis Sánchez and Bosnian Edin Dzeko, but eventually resigned.
Roma was active in the market, closing the return of Stephan El Shaarawy, after two seasons in Chinese football with Shanghai Shenhua, and the signing of American Brian Reynolds, a 19-year-old defender who signed with FC Dallas of La US MLS .
Atalanta, Real Madrid’s rival in the knockout stages of the Champions League, was the protagonist in an illustrious sale of Argentinian Alejandro ‘Papu’ Gómez to Sevilla.
Gomez, the Bergamo team captain and leader for the past four years, left Italy after a harsh altercation with manager Gian Piero Gasperini in December. There was no way to fix it and the club decided to hand it over to the Spanish team.
To replace him, Atalanta’s sports management chose Ukrainian midfielder Victor Kovalenko and reinforced the right wing with the talented Danish fullback Joakim Maelhe, from Genk, Belgium.
There were no sign-ups for Napoli, Granada’s rival in the Europa League round of 32, but there were illustrious starts.
Polish striker Arkadiusz Milik, who didn’t count for coach Gennaro Gattuso, left Serie A to sign for Marseille in Ligue 1, while Spaniard Fernando Llorente, who didn’t have much fame in the early part of the campaign, ended up in Udinese. with his fellow countryman Gerard Deulofeu.
Cesare Prandelli’s Fiorentina, in which the Argentines Germán Pezzella or Lucas Martínez Quarta and the Spanish Borja Valero and José Callejón are active, made an ambitious bet by involving the Russian striker Aleksandr Kokorin, from Spartak Moscow.
Among the other market activities in Italy, the signing of the Argentinian Adolfo Gaich for Benevento or the Paraguayan Antonio Sanabria for Torino of Real Betis stands out.
In addition, Dutchman Kevin Strootman, a former Roma player, left Marseille to sign for Genoa.
In the closing hours of the market, Sassuolo completed an operation for the future, signing young Colombian right back Yeferson Paz, 18, from Cortuluá.