The AC Milan scouting department have once again fixed their sights on Schalke 04 and Assan Ouédraogo has caught their eye, according to a report.
This morning’s edition of La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) recalls how Geoffrey Moncada, in the summer of 2022, bet on a German centre-back who had just had his first season as a starter at Schalke in the German second division.
He put forward the name of Malick Thiaw to Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara, and then he eventually arrived at the club where he is now an established starter alongside Fikayo Tomori.
A year and a half later, Milan are closely following another German starlet playing at Schalke, who in the meantime have returned to the 2. Bundesliga.
His name is Assan Ouédraogo, and the 17-year-old is attracting interest from a number of clubs. The paper adds that there will soon be a meeting between Milan and Schalke to understand if there is the possibility of a negotiation.
How is this in any way like Thiaw except that they both played in Germany ? Thiaw had a cheap release clause (I believe around 8m euros) and didn’t attract attention by many clubs (if I recall correctly Pool and Arsenal were looking but weren’t serious). 20m for this kid is way too much even as a gamble.
I don’t get how this is similar to Thiaw. He is also getting attention from Bayern, Liverpool, Everton, Arsenal and Dortmund (Not sure about this one). On the other hand, Thiaw with all due respect was pretty much a cheap unknown player. Do we really need him? I looked at his stats and he can play anywhere in the midfield, but he is mostly a no 8. We already have good players for that position.