The Millennial Agora looks at the hottest transfer window projections one week before its start in Europe. While every country has its own starting date in world football, this date and the end date is somewhat similar in most European Leagues. This article will take a look at the current top three rumors.
Jadon Sancho
Arguably the most waited transfer of last summer was Sancho´s from Borussia Dortmund to English giants Manchester United. It was reported back then that personal terms between the player and United have already been agreed to, but the last step of agreeing on a transfer fee with Dortmund ultimately failed. Back then the price tag on him was 120 million Euros, but only 1 year later it is claimed by transfermarkt.de, that it has been dropped to 90 million. Michael Zorc, Dortmund´s Sport Director recently said: “Under certain conditions he can leave”. It also seems like Dortmund is much more open to sell their most valuable player now than before. This can be explained by Sancho´s current situation, as he is moving to his last 2 years of his contract.
Dortmund has a long-standing history of letting some of their best players go, for example: Ousmane Dembele, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Christian Pulisic and Henrikh Mikhitaryan. This may implicate another sale this summer with Jadon Sancho reportedly wanting to return to his home country, England. Transfermarkt projects a 51% chance for Sancho to change clubs this summer.
Gianluigi Donnarumma
It came as a shock to many when it was announced by AC Milan that they could not reach an agreement with their goalkeeper over a contract extension. Since then, the reason has been cleared by the media, Donnarumma’s and his agent´s, Mino Raiola´s, demands were just too high to be acceptable by the Rossoneri. Now the world´s 4th most valuable goalkeeper is looking for a new club with a lot of uncertainty.
It has been reported by multiple media sources that PSG is interested in signing him, but they already have a world class keeper, namely Keylor Navas. The newly crowned Champions League winner, Chelsea is also interested while the Blues are thinking about offloading their unwanted goalkeeper, Kepa Arrizabalaga. Currently, it seems to be hard to find a top club for Donnarumma as none of them are desperately searching for a new goalkeeper. Milan has already found their replacement by buying Mike Maignan from Ligue 1 champions LOSC Lille for a reported 13 million Euros.
Romelu Lukaku
After the strongest and most successful season of his career, Lukaku is nearing the end of his time at Internationale Milano. He is one of the many changes the club is planning to execute as Inter is looking to save money and sell players to make up for their negative balance, which was caused by the pandemic and their excessive spending in the last years. Lukaku is being valued at an eye-watering 100 million Euros and could be the biggest transfer of this summer´s window.
So far, the most interested clubs are Chelsea, Manchester City and Real Madrid. Lukaku himself stated some days ago that he is not planning on leaving the club, but we project that if an official offer arrives, he will reconsider. His contract at Inter is binding him to the Nerazzuri until 2024.