Rafael Leao is definitely the best Milan player in this first part of the season. The Portuguese winger, with his talent and his goals, is leading the Rossoneri in the Serie A and in their Champions League group as well.
A fundamental player who in the last hours of the summer transfer market, Chelsea tried to snatch from AC Milan. This was confirmed by the director Paolo Maldini himself – who a few days ago – released these comments:
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“Chelsea haven’t sent any official bid for Leão, but they made a verbal proposal that we rejected”. All true. At the end of August the Blues made a last-ditch attempt to bring Leao to Stamford Bridge, offering AC Milan €80m + some players in the deal.
As told, Milan refused the proposal citing the €150m release clause as a value of Rafa who ultimately remained in Serie A and – as reaffirmed by Maldini as well – is one of the main elements on which the Rossoneri project is based. Additional backstory: the €19m breach-of-contract debt that Leao has to pay to Sporting represented an additional complication for Chelsea to raise a new “informal” bid to AC Milan.