Newcastle CLOSE to signing Sandro Tonali for €70m

Carlo Garganese

• 21 Jun 2023 18:54 BST
• 3 min read

Newcastle are close to agreeing a €70 million transfer fee with AC Milan for midfield starSandro Tonali.

According to The Athletic, among other publications, Newcastle are close to finalising a deal with Milan after face-to-face negotiations on Wednesday.

Tonali has been a hot name on the market in recent hours after multiple sources confirmed earlier on Tuesday that Newcastle had tabled a €60 million bid for Tonali.

This was immediately rejected by Milan, who made it clear that they wanted more money.

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Tonali’s agent and entourage travelled to England for negotiations on Wednesday, which illustrated how serious the talks were.

Newcastle have now raised their offer and Milan are close to accepting the bid.

Gazzetta dello Sport report that Newcastle have offered Tonali a huge contract worth €8m a year - a big increase on his Milan salary of €3.5m per season.

Will Tonali accept transfer?

All that is required now to complete the transfer is Tonali to accept.

Tonali is a boyhood Milan fan and has always made it clear that he doesn’t seem himself anywhere else other than in the Rossoneri shirt.

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However the sheer sums of money on offer from Newcastle will naturally make anyone consider a transfer. In addition to this, the fact that Milan have made it clear they want to sell Tonali may play a role on his decision.

Newcastle are not the only Premier League team who are interested in signing Tonali.

The Italian media reported on Wednesday that Chelsea have entered the race, as well.

Chelsea are in the market for a number of central midfielders as they have just released N’Golo Kante on a free transfer, while they will sell Mateo Kovacic to Man City.

The 23-year-old Tonali was labelled the ‘new Andrea Pirlo’ due to having a similar appearance, style of play and career origins to the former Brescia, Milan, Juventus and Italy midfield maestro.

In truth, he has always been more of a mix of Rino Gattuso together with Pirlo.

After an excellent first season in Serie A as a 19-year-old in 2019-20 with Brescia, Tonali made the step up to a bigger club at the end of that campaign to join Milan.

He played a pivotal role in Milan winning their first Scudetto in 11 years in 2022, as well as the run to the Champions League semi-final in the past season.