Former Milan CEO Adriano Galliani reveals the battles with Inter to sign Geoffrey Kondogbia and Matteo Pessina, with Piero Ausilio confessing he got the worst end of both deals.
The two rival clubs share San Siro, a city and also many of their transfer objectives, something that goes back many years.
Sometimes the toughest fights were for players who did not end up being well remembered.
“I did everything to sign Kondogbia and Inter did well to beat us there, but I also paid for a very poor rapport between Nelio Lucas and his agent,” revealed Galliani during today’s event in Rimini marking the start of the transfer window.
Inter ended up signing Kondogbia from Monaco for €36m in 2015, so Milan turned to a far cheaper alternative.
“Monza went bankrupt on July 1, 2015. I could’ve signed Pessina for free, but his father – who was also taking care of their bankruptcy proceedings – told me they needed €30,000 to pay the wages of their employees on June 30,” continued Galliani.
“We could’ve got Pessina for free a day later, but we decided to pay the €30,000 and that way we snatched him out from under Inter’s noses.”
Inter director Ausilio was at the event too and admits they didn’t come out well from that scenario, as Kondogbia was an absolute flop.
“He spent €30,000 for Pessina, we spent €30m for Kondogbia. With hindsight, it would’ve been better for us to get Pessina, seeing how that went. Let’s just say the investment we made did not pay off with his performances.”
Although Pessina was sold to Atalanta for just €1.78m in 2017, they do retain 50 per cent of any future sale, with the midfielder now making a big splash with two goals for Italy at UEFA EURO 2020.