Zero minutes out of 180 and €30m rumours: Fofana goes from certainty to mystery

Youssouf Fofana seems to have gone from being one of the first names on the team sheet at AC Milan to the object of mystery.

On Sunday night at the Stadio Olimpico, Samuele Ricci got the nod to start in the right mezzala role. It was the second straight game that the Italian had started in that particular position, after the home win over Lecce.

The spot that Fofana seemed to have locked down became up for grabs, and Ricci has taken in. After starting versus Como, the Frenchman has disappeared from the pitch, having played zero minutes against Lecce and Roma.

This isn’t an insignificant detail, given that Fofana has been involved in every match since the start of the season, barring injury. The ex-Monaco was included in the squad and didn’t appear to have any physical issues, so why was he left out?

Fitness and form

One of the plausible reasons for his absence was to give Ricci more playing time, to get the former Torino captain fully into rhythm ahead of the decisive part of the 2025-26 campaign.

After his 90 minutes against Fiorentina, the Italian midfielder played 21 minutes against Como, 73 against Lecce and 79 against Roma. In the last two matches, Ruben Loftus-Cheek replaced Ricci, not Fofana.

Fatigue is another factor to consider: in his last few appearances before the games against Lecce and Roma, Fofana appeared tired. Allegri may have preferred someone fresher, also because this exhaustion can lead to mistakes at both ends.

There is also the unavoidable fact that Fofana has made some errors more generally in his performances this season. Allegri prefers low-event games where his side do not inflict any harm on themselves, and so he may have preferred to move in a different direction.

Market whispers

It seems harder to believe that Fofana’s absence from the last two games is linked to transfer rumours, but they deserve a mention anyway.

According to Matteo Moretto (vi Reddit), a week and a half ago Galatasaray were willing to offer around €30m including bonuses for Fofana, a figure between €25-30m fixed, but at that point Fofana said no.

He wasn’t convinced by the idea of a move to Turkey, so the talks stalled at that point. The feed offered is certainly a significant figure, but it doesn’t seem to appeal to Milan or the player at the moment.

Fofana wants to stay in Milan to try to lead the club back to the Champions League, but whether he does so with a starting spot or watching from the bench remains to be seen.