Condemnation greets Milan’s plan to swap Okafor for Tammy Abraham
AC Milan are ready to go all in for Roma striker Tammy Abraham and have reportedly started considering the idea of sending Noah Okafor to the capital in exchange.
Rossoneri coach Paulo Fonseca believes the 26-year-old English striker is the perfect option to bolster his squad this summer following the arrival of Alvaro Morata, wanting two centre-forwards with different characteristics to add some depth to his attack.
Roma are open to selling Abraham in the coming weeks, having just signed his replacement Artem Dovbyk from Girona, and have set a circa €25-30m price tag on the Englishman.
Milan have hoped to lower the costs with a player in exchange, with possible candidates including Luka Jovic and Davide Calabria.
Corriere dello Sport details how Milan have come up with a new plan to sign Abraham this month, thinking about sending Okafor to Roma as part of a deal for the English striker.
The 24-year-old Swiss winger showed some positive signs in his debut season with the Rossoneri, scoring six goals and providing three assists across 36 matches.
But for MilanNews , Abraham seems to be a strange target for Milan because of the sheer amount of injuries and physical issues that he has had in recent years, while Roma are desperately trying to get rid of him and for a reason.
They posit Milan could perhaps think of getting favourable terms such as a loan with an option to buy, but anything more than that seems to go against logic. “We are talking about a player who had an injury in preseason and who practically missed the entire last season due a cruciate ligament problem.
“What is even more worrying than his shaky physical condition is the performances and the goal returns. In the last season he played with continuity, 2022-23, Abraham played 54 times (across Serie A, Coppa Italia, Europa League), and scored only nine goals.
“If it is hard to imagine why Milan would go for the Englishman, it is even more difficult is to find a sense in the possible exchange with Okafor as was reported, both from a technical and economic point of view.”
Okafor in his first season at Milan made a name for himself as an impact substitute and scored a goal every game and a half in Serie A on average, with all of them decisive and in terms of the result. He gives the impression of having much more to offer, and though he has had injury issues they are nowhere near as severe.
Comparing the costs on the balance sheet, the Swiss forward weighs just under €6m (€14m on the transfer fee with a gross five-year contract of just over €3m), while Abraham costs Roma €14.4m annually (€40m on the transfer fee with a gross five-year contract of around €5m).
The report finishes as follows: “What sense would there be in getting rid of a younger, more talented player with better potential and who weighs little on the balance sheet to go and solve a serious economic problem of a ‘rival’, bringing in a player who has a question mark as big as a house on his head as if we were in a work by the master Kojima? It’s difficult to explain.”
