Former Club Brugge executive Vincent Mannaert has revealed he would have preferred to sell Charles De Ketelaere to Leeds United than AC Milan in 2022.
The former director has been speaking to Gianluca di Marzio about the transfer, which did not work out for the Belgian.
He joined Milan in a €36.5m deal in the 2022 summer transfer window but struggled to impress for the Italian giants in his first season at the club.
De Ketelaere was subsequently loaned out to Atalanta last summer and has been a big hit for them instead, bagging ten goals and eight assists in 35 games in the league and two goals and two assists in 11 games in the Europa League, which they won.
The Italian side have an option to buy him permanently, but it remains to be see if they will take it up. If they do not, he will be returning to Milan, a place where he was very unhappy before his temporary summer exit.
Things could have been very different for him as he had chosen the Italian giants over Leeds United, who had battled all throughout that summer to get a deal over the line but were beaten to the punch by their most illustrious counterparts.
That was clearly a bad decision on the player’s part and Mannaert admits he would have preferred to see the forward head to Elland Road.
“These negotiations are never easy and what didn’t work in Milan’s favour was the fact that Bruges had an agreement with Leeds for De Ketelaere,” he said.
“The English offered a lot of money. I was in a position of power thanks to that offer from Leeds and as a result it wasn’t easy for Paolo Maldini.
“I personally wouldn’t have had anything against it if Charles had gone to Leeds but then I accepted his wish to go to Milan. The problem is that the Rossoneri’s first offer was 22 million… zero chance that I would have accepted!”
