AC Milan has officially announced that that Christopher Nkunku has been sold to RB Leipzig on a season-long loan, with the option to sign him permanently.
Excluding activated options and obligations to buy, Milan are still yet to sell any of their players this summer, with just a few days remaining of the summer transfer window. On the other hand, the club has been more active on the transfer market in recent weeks, and is likely not done for the summer.
Among those expected to leave the club in the coming days are Fikayo Tomori, Youssouf Fofana, Warren Bondo and Santiago Giménez. The respective futures of Rafael Leão and Samuele Ricci remain more ambiguous, with both having linked with moves away for much of the summer, but nothing appearing to be imminent at the moment.
Another player who was expected to leave is Christopher Nkunku, and although Milan were able to sell him permanently, he has nonetheless left the club for RB Leipzig.
It was at Leipzig where Nkunku first broke through at the senior level. In the 2021–22 season, Nkunku amassed 51 goal contributions in all club competitions, and although he would remain at Leipzig the following season, he had secured a future move to Chelsea.
While at Chelsea, though, Nkunku endured significant problems with injuries. Over his two seasons at the club, Nkunku only started 25 games in all club competitions, of which 11 came in the Premier League.
Despite the injury issues at Chelsea, Milan chose to sign Nkunku last summer, betting on his talent. According to Matteo Moretto, a base fee of 38 million euros was paid for the player, with five million euros in potential bonuses, which would, however, be difficult to activate.
In the end, Nkunku would struggle at Milan. His injury issues would continue, as he only started 17 games in all club competitions. Furthermore, while he would amass 10 goal contributions in 15.1 90s, five of these were penalties, excluding which Nkunku averaged just 0.33 non-penalty goal contributions per 90 minutes.
After a pre-season assessment of the player, Milan’s new management, including head coach Ruben Amorim, decided to exclude Nkunku from the technical project. The club now returns to RB Leipzig, who will pay a fee of three million euros for the one-year loan, and can exercise an option to sign Nkunku permanently for slightly less than 30 million euros, according to Matteo Moretto.
