Inter are closing in on Cagliari right-back Raoul Bellanova, expected to beat competition from Juventus and Fiorentina.
Both Sportitalia and Tuttomercatoweb are confident that the Nerazzurri will eventually win the race for the attacking right-sided player who only turned 22 last month.
He was on loan at Cagliari this season from Girondins de Bordeaux, but they had an option to buy for €0.7m and have activated it.
Although the Sardinians were relegated into Serie B, Bellanova impressed with a goal and two assists in 31 Serie A games.
The negotiations between Cagliari and Inter continue, and are expected to reach a conclusion at around the €8m mark.
Bellanova is capable of playing as a right-back or on the right wing of a five-man midfield.
He is a product of the Milan youth academy, who sold him to Bordeaux in January 2019.
The player has 13 caps for Italy at Under-21 level and has been recently evaluated by Roberto Mancini for the senior Azzurri squad.
🚨 #Inter svolta ad un passo per #Bellanova riscattato da parte del #Cagliari. Come anticipato a fine maggio l’esterno piace molto ai #nerazzurri che hanno seminato il vuoto rispetto alla concorrenza. @tvdellosport ⬇️ https://t.co/oLEfY7bJHf
— Gianluigi Longari (@Glongari) June 5, 2022
Milan youth product? Milan fans won’t be happy. 😛
@ InterFan75 That’d be two full backs after you signed Darmian our former youth team captain! And now Milan are trying to do a deal for Florenzi when we could’ve sorted the right back spot 10 years ago.
Florenzi is Better than both though. Has always been.
Florenzi is going to enjoy bellanova’s dust.
@ Milan Fan It’s not about “better”, it’s about consistency, and had someone like Darmian been at the club for coming up to 15 years, that experience and connection would’ve been worth 10 times any other RB particularly as we’re talking about squad players. Surely you’ve learnt by now with Milan’s title win that it’s not about having the “best” players, it’s about having a team.
@Maldini’s Heir
I don’t disagree. I’d love to have a team full of youth academy products, but it’s simply impossible to keep all of them in the team, for one reason or another (players’ will one of them, like Cristante).
The club can only make their evaluations and keep the best of the best based on that judgement, and that is if they are ready to play for a club like Milan straight away at such a young age, which rarely happens. The rest go away or risk sitting too much on the bench, which in Darmian or Bellanova’s case would’ve prevented them from becoming the players they are today.
@Maldini’s Heir
I don’t disagree. I’d love to have a team full of youth academy products, but it’s simply impossible to keep all of them in the team, for one reason or another (players’ will one of them, like Cristante).
You can only make your evaluations and keep the best of them, and that is if they are ready to play for a club like Milan straight away at such a young age, which rarely happens. The rest go away or risk sitting too much on the bench, which in Darmian or Bellanova’s case would’ve prevented them from becoming the players they are today.