Last summer, Charles de Ketelaere was leaving Club Brugge after a great season and was ready for the next step.
A number of clubs were after him, including Leeds United, who worked hard to try and get a deal over the line for Jesse Marsch.
Unfortunately for the Whites, AC Milan were also keen, and the appeal of the European giants, who ended up paying less than what the Elland Road side were offering, was just too good to refuse for the young Belgian, as recalled by HLN in a long article on the player.
What followed next, though, wasn’t what the player expected, as the now 22-year-old went from a season where he scored 18 goals and assisted another 10 in 48 appearances at Brugge to one assist in 40 games for Milan.
It has earned him a lot of criticism, with his form far from improving during the U21 Euros, where he represented his country, and some believe it was entirely predictable.
In fact, some strongly feel he should have taken the move to Leeds when it presented itself.
HLN quote a ‘prominent voice at Club Brugge’ as saying: “Leeds would have been a much more logical step in the development of Charles than Milan. The season that he has had was written in the stars. Someone with his profile cannot just step into the world of AC Milan from a Belgian club.
“If the results are disappointing, Zlatan or Olivier Giroud won’t be looked at, nor will the Italian players. The one looked at is the foreigner, €30m… That Charles looked around and wondered: ‘What is happening here?’, that is normal. However, the question should be: ‘Why didn’t he want to make a sporting and mental switch first?’ He can be blamed for that.”
As the newspaper put it, it’s understandable that a young player being courted by the football legend that is Paolo Maldini will choose that option over Leeds, described as an ‘unloved city in the north of England’.
The belief is De Ketelaere had ‘been able to wallow in the comfort zone of Bruges all his career, his whole life’, and the jump to a massive club like the San Siro residents was simply too big.
As one puts it, the 22-year-old ‘still has to become a man’.
For that to happen, all the sources spoken to by HLN had one thing to say: “Charles has to leave Milan for a while. He is skipping steps.”
It won’t be at Leeds this time, as the Whites were recently relegated to the Championship, a league he will have no interest in featuring in, but there are other options for him, with recent claims suggesting teams such as Burnley, where Vincent Kompany could give him all the guidance he might need, Crystal Palace, Everton and West Ham are taking an interest in him.
