The Nerazzurri are in pole position for the 23-year-old Lille defender: they already have his word. However, Allegri, Cholo and PSG also want him
Juve likes him, happy to be rude to their rivals in January. Simeone, the great master of defence, is intrigued by his search for another central defender to shape in his Atletico team. The rich PSG is also very interested, as it has a strong position in the domestic market of Ligue 1. But, above all, for over a year now, Tiago Djaló has bewitched Inter: the managers would have signed this talented 23-year-old defender from Lille, ideal in Inzaghi’s three-man department, already last January, if only the conditions had been there. The sale of Skriniar was needed, but given that the Slovakian remained until the deadline, here was the change in strategy and the decision to focus on the purchase at the end of the season on a 0 transfer, as per tradition. The sporting director Piero Ausilio and the CEO Beppe Marotta had set the table for some time, but the player, theoretically convinced by the Inter offer, can only sign at the beginning of January. Now the crowding of suitors makes everything more complex.
What a brawl
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The race is therefore more open than previously thought, and unpredictable precisely because it is played over two transfer sessions: this one arriving at the beginning of 2024 and the one next summer. Juve and Atletico, for example, would not disdain the idea of taking him immediately by paying a few million to Lille: it is a competitive advantage, the French club would prefer an immediate separation and is asking for 4-5. PSG, on the other hand, is not eager for an immediate deal, just like Inter. Despite the emergency in defence, the Nerazzurri do not have an immediate operation planned back there. For a while they considered the possibility of loaning Yann Bisseck, but in agreement with Inzaghi it was decided to keep him. He will be useful and is already growing: the last no for the German, for example, was said to Frosinone. The choice to focus on Djaló only on a free transfer arises, yes, from an economic evaluation (there is no point in spending even a little for what you can get for free six months later), but also from the extensive preparatory work: for weeks a basis of agreement with the defender who also joined the AC Milan Primavera team and with his staff. For his part, the Portuguese appreciated the fact that the Nerazzurri did not give up on him during the toughest days, courting him from a distance without invading the pitch: at the beginning of March the player born in 2000, in fact, tore his cruciate ligament and since then he has not most played, yet no one doubts that it will return to what it once was.
Old understandings
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On this basis, everything will depend on the will of the Portuguese who Milan sacrificed in 2019 on the altar of the purchase of Leao from Lille. There, before the knee injury, he grew year after year, becoming one of the most interesting defenders on the pitch: in the summer of 2022 he was untouchable and valued at around twenty million, while today, even if clinically recovered, he doesn’t see the field in the team coached by former Roma player Fonseca, the French certainly don’t want to valorise a player who has already communicated his decision to say goodbye in any case. That’s why they’re pushing him out the door, hoping to find allies, perhaps in Turin: it’s true that Juve’s priority for January is a shot in midfield, but given that Alex Sandro won’t be renewed, with Djaló they could take precautions in advance. From his point of view, Inter have in any case woven the plot and are not thinking about revivals, but they are keeping a tight grip on the player and his complex entourage: he will return to talk to them before New Year’s Eve, once and for all. If the old agreements are confirmed, in January he will give Tiago a pen to sign immediately.
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