The Milan club made the most important signatures, albeit at a low cost, in a session marked by the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus
Milan was the most active club on the Italian winter market, which officially closed on Monday, signing Croatian striker Mario Mandzukic and young English defender Fikayo Tomori from Chelsea, to try to fight until the end for a league title that at the beginning of the campaign seemed impossible.
The Milan club, owned by the American fund Elliott, made the most important signatures, although with low costs, 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 over Inter, Milan has intensified its team with Mandzukic, who arrives free, to offer coach Stefano Pioli an alternative to the 39-year-old Swede, Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The Croatian striker, former player of Bayern Munich, Atlético Madrid or Juventus, is a footballer of character and with a winning mentality, who carries 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 has played 21 minutes against Atalanta and 18 against Bologna to regain his good form after almost ten months of inactivity after leaving Al Duhail in Doha in March 2020.
Tomori also came on loan from Chelsea. He replaces Argentine Mateo Musacchio, who made a stop in Lazio, and French midfielder Soualiho Meite, from Torino.
Their direct rivals, Juventus and Inter, were attentive to possible market opportunities, but in the end they did not change their teams, already considered at hand to fight for their goals.
Juventus from Andrea Pirlo decided to wait to sign an additional striker, while Inter explored the possibility of an exchange with Roma between Chilean Alexis Sánchez and Bosnian Edin Dzeko, but eventually resigned.
Rome has been active in the market, which closed the return of Stephan El Shaarawy, after two seasons in Chinese football with Shanghai Shenhua, and the signing of the American Brian Reynolds, a 19-year-old defender, signed from FC Dallas from La US MLS .
Atalanta, Real Madrid’s rival in the knockout stages of the Champions League, was the protagonist for an illustrious sale, that of the Argentine Alejandro ‘Papu’ Gómez to Sevilla.
Captain and leader of the Bergamo team for the last four years, Gomez left Italy after a tough discussion with manager Gian Piero Gasperini in December. There was no way to solve it, and the club decided to transfer him to the Spanish team.
To replace him, Atalanta’s sports management opted for the Ukrainian midfielder Victor Kovalenko, as well as for strengthening the right wing with the talented Danish defender Joakim Maelhe, from the Belgian Genk.
There were no contracts for Napoli, Granada’s rival in the round of 16 of the Europa League, but there were illustrious starts.
Polish striker Arkadiusz Milik, who did not count for coach Gennaro Gattuso, left Serie A to sign for Marseille in Ligue 1, while Spaniard Fernando Llorente, who was not very important in the first half of the campaign, reached Udinese with his compatriot Gerard Deulofeu.
Cesare Prandelli’s Fiorentina, in which Argentines Germán Pezzella or Lucas Martínez Quarta and Spaniards Borja Valero and José Callejón are active, made an ambitious bet by incorporating Russian striker Aleksandr Kokorin, from Spartak Moscow.
Other market operations in Italy include the signing of Argentine Adolfo Gaich for Benevento or Paraguayan Antonio Sanabria for Torino at Real Betis.
In addition, Dutchman Kevin Strootman, a former Roma player, left Marseille to sign for Genoa.
In the last hours of the market, Sassuolo completed an operation for the future, by signing the young Colombian right defender Yeferson Paz, 18, from Cortuluá.