Chelsea striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang returns to San Siro, where he scored one goal in 2007 wearing the Milan shirt. Here’s what you may not know about his career with the Rossoneri.
The 33-year-old spent one year and a half at Milan, arriving in January 2007, but never made his senior debut with the Rossoneri, scoring 11 goals in 26 games with their Primavera team before joining Dijon, Lille and Monaco on loan.
He left the club on a permanent deal in 2012, joining Saint-Etienne for barely €2m.
During his time with Milan’s Primavera team, he became the best scorer of the Youth Summer tournament Champions Youth Cup held in Malaysia scoring six goals in seven games. He was playing with Inter defender Matteo Darmian, a product of the Rossoneri academy.
The ex-Arsenal and Barcelona striker still has many friends in Milano and was often spotted nearby over the last few years to visit some of them.
After the lockdown in August 2020, he played a seven-a-side match with former Serie A star Vitali Kutuzov, a few kilometres from the capital of Lombardy, gifting Arsenal shirts to all his friends involved in the game.
Aubameyang may have never made his senior debut with Milan, but he did score one goal in a friendly match against Juventus in August 2007. It was the classic ‘Trofeo Berlusconi’ which took place before the start of every season, usually between the Rossoneri and the Bianconeri. In 2007-08 the match was played in January.
Carlo Ancelotti was in charge of the Rossoneri at that time and the Diavoli won 3-2 thanks to Auba’s winner.
Pippo Inzaghi, Pavel Nedved, Alessandro Del Piero and Clarence Seedorf also put their name on the scoresheet in that match.
Aubameyang wanted to return to San Siro in 2017, but the Rossoneri opted for André Silva instead. It was the first summer transfer window after the Berlusconi presidency, when the Serie A giants spent almost €200m for new purchases, including Leonardo Bonucci from Juventus, Hakan Calhanoglu, Lucas Biglia, Mateo Musacchio, Franck Kessié and Nikola Kalinic.
That summer, Aubameyang publicly admitted that he wanted to return to Milan during a live chat on Instagram: ‘I’d like to be back but they [Milan directors] are sleeping,” he said.
The striker eventually joined Arsenal from Borussia Dortmund the following January in a €64m deal.
This kid is so overrated that makes me puke. The guy has never delivered in any place according to the value given by fans and pundits. His best years were at Arsenal and even there he won basically zero and the team could not rely on him. It is one of those mysteries of football – you don’t know how this guy has played in so many elite teams…
Never saw him play for Dortmund then putuco?
He wasn’t exactly a failure in Germany. Don’t know if I’d call him overrated.
In hindsight, Andre Silva was the wrong bet, even with Rebic having some decent success, coming the other way in his departure deal.
It would have been interesting to see if Leao and Silva could have made a good pair…