Leeds United made firm efforts to sign Charles De Ketelaere from Club Brugge, but he snubbed the Whites and made a switch to AC Milan in the summer window.
Last month, the Belgium international’s agents revealed the Premier League side were ‘concrete’ in their chase.
The 21-year-old’s national team manager, Roberto Martínez, backed his decision to pick the Serie A winners over Leeds.
The Belgian champions earned a club-record fee of €32m from the forward’s sale to the Rossoneri and this figure can rise to €35m if bonuses are included. It could have much higher, had they agreed to sell him to Jesse Marsch’s side for €40m.
“Leeds United offered €40m for Charles. It is not that De Ketelaere was not interested, but at that time his preference was for AC Milan. I never really thought we wouldn’t come to an agreement. In the end, it turned out that we got out relatively quickly,” Mannaert told MID MID Podcast, relayed by Voetbalkrant.
“At such moments, there are simply three parties. Charles understood that Milan initially offered too little. Leeds were willing to pay more, but we also respected the choice of our player.”
De Ketelaere has made nine appearances for Milan this season and mainly operated as an attacking midfielder. He has an assist but is yet to score his first goal for the Italian club.
