During the summer, AC Milan, in search of a striker, made several inquiries about Mateo Retegui from Atalanta. The player eventually moved to Saudi Arabia, but the interest from Igli Tare was real. Fabrizio Romano spoke about it in a video on his YouTube channel. These were his words:
"Every time Retegui wears the Italy shirt, he performs excellently, scores often, and keeps proving his worth. With Al-Qadsiah, he signed a major contract in terms of salary, while Atalanta earned around 67 million euros from his sale last summer."
"Before that move, in June, as soon as Igli Tare arrived at Milan, he made several inquiries to try to bring Retegui to the Rossoneri for a different fee. Milan would never have paid 66–67 million euros for Retegui. The discussions were about different figures, around 35–40 million with bonuses. But Atalanta never opened the door for that amount and preferred to wait. Then Saudi Arabia arrived, and they offered far higher financial terms for everyone involved."
Tare and Milan tried for Retegui, they gave it a serious thought...
"Still, Milan had given it serious thought. Today, Retegui is not thinking about leaving in January. He is expected to complete the season with Al-Qadsiah unless something extraordinary happens. As for the near future, it’s too early to say whether it will be in a year or two, but Retegui still keeps the idea of returning to Serie A in the back of his mind. He performed well both at Genoa and Atalanta and feels he still has something important to give to Italian football."
"So, Retegui will think about Serie A again. For now, he is focused on Al-Qadsiah and hopes to help Italy qualify for the World Cup. That is his goal. But he continues to think about Italy for the future, especially after the talks with Milan that failed for several reasons, mainly financial ones."
