Moretto: Why Bennacer’s move to Saudi Arabia collapsed despite player approval

Ismael Bennacer said yes to a move to Saudi Arabia earlier this summer and AC Milan were optimistic about reaching an agreement. However, in the end, the move to Al-Ittihad fell through.

Bennacer returned from his loan spell at Marseille at the start of the summer, and right off the bat, it was made clear that he wasn’t part of Milan’s plans. As such, the parties started looking for suitors immediately and the Saudi Arabia side Al-Ittihad expressed a concrete interest.

Long story short, the Algerian signed his contract with Dinamo Zagreb yesterday, joining them on a season-long loan with an option to buy at €10m. For Milan, it was clearly not the best outcome, so what actually happened with the other suitors?

Verbal offer never materialised

According to Matteo Moretto, sharing the background in his latest YouTube video, Bennacer actually said yes to joining Al-Ittihad earlier in the summer. The Saudi club even made a verbal offer to Milan, at which point the move only seemed to be a matter of time.

In the end, however, Al-Ittihad never formalised the offer for the Rossoneri and thus didn’t proceed with their pursuit. Trabzonspor expressed an interest as well but negotiations with Milan never deepened as Bennacer rejected the destination.

Perhaps Trabzonspor would have been a better solution for the Rossoneri than Dinamo Zagreb, likely able to cover the midfielder’s full salary rather than just 40%, but the collapsed move to Saudi Arabia was undoubtedly the big blow.