By the time that Milan return to action against Napoli after the international break, Charles De Ketekaere could have gone a whole calendar year without scoring a goal. 

The 22-year-old was still playing for Club Brugge the last time he found the net, which came in the Belgian outfit’s penultimate game of the regular 2021-22 league season in an away trip to Beerschot. 

The Belgian added his side’s third goal of the game on that occasion, slotting home into an empty net from the centre of the penalty area on April 1, 2022. 

Since then, De Ketelaere played seven more games for Brugge before signing for the Rossoneri in a deal worth in the region of €35m in at the end of June, 2022. 

He is now up to 31 games or 1,781 minutes across all competitions without a goal for Milan since his big money move to San Siro. 

De Ketelaere had an impressive record in front of goal prior to his move to Serie A, with 18 goals in 49 outings across the 2021-22 season. 

Unless he finally ends his goal drought in Belgium’s upcoming game against Germany on Tuesday evening, the struggling forward will achieve an unfortunate feat.

When Milan travel to Naples on April 2 to take on the Partenopei at the Stadio Diego Armando Maradona after the restart of domestic football, De Ketelaere will have gone over a year without scoring for club and country. 

Of all the strikers to have featured for Milan over the last 10 years, only Mario Mandzukic went his first season without scoring a single goal. 

De Ketelaere has 11 games left of league football and at least two in the Champions League to find the net if he is to avoid setting a new unfortunate record for the Rossoneri.

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