Matteo Gabbia has now left Milan’s pre-season tour in the United States to head to Spain, where he’ll complete his move to Villarreal.
The 23-year-old Italian centre back, who is a product of the club’s youth system, did not feature heavily under Stefano Pioli last season, seeing just 895 minutes of action across 17 total appearances.
Milan are currently working on completing a deal for Villarreal winger Samuel Chukwueze and during these talks the idea of an unrelated deal involving Gabbia was discussed.
As reported by Gianluca Di Marzio, Gabbia has now left the Milan camp in the US to fly to Spain, where he’ll join Villarreal on a season-long ‘dry’ loan deal with no permanence clause attached.
Speaking ahead of his flight, the 23-year-old expressed his excitement at the move and touched on how it felt to leave his Milan teammates.
“I’m very happy with this new experience in Spain, I’m sorry to leave a fantastic squad.
“I wish the best to all the staff and to all my teammates. We hope that Milan will in any case take away some satisfactions. I want to send a greeting to all the fans.
“I’m very enthusiastic about my new experience, I couldn’t not accept it. They immediately motivated me so much.”
Gabbia has made 51 total appearances for the Milan first team and was part of the squad that won the Scudetto in the 2021-22 season.