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Joshua Zirzkee has been the centre of a two horse race recently, with United and AC Milan battling it out to sign the Bolonga striker.
A product of the Bayern Munich youth Academy, Zirkzee spent the first few years of his professional career at Parma and RSC Anderlecht on loan to gain more match time.
Unfortunately, the first loan at Parma was plagued with injury, allowing him to only make four appearances all off the bench, totalling 108 minutes of game time for the Serie A side.
However, at Anderlecht a very different story played out with the striker being vital to their campaign, getting eighteen goals and thirteen assists in 47 games across all competitions. Zirkzee’s involvement helped the club achieve a third place finish in the Jupiler Pro League, and made it to the finals of the Croky Cup where they lost on penalties to KAA Gent.
Upon his return from Anderlecht, Bologna pounced on the Dutch striker, signing him for €8.5 million, where he has now become a key player, this season grabbing eleven goals and five assists in 34 games.
Despite the 23-year-old having not yet made his international debut for the Netherlands, Zirkzee has been called up in the squad to represent the Netherlands at Euro 2024 in Germany thanks to his consistently strong performances this season.
Now, after months of interest from both United and AC Milan, the Red Devils could be left alone as the front runners to sign Zirkzee this summer, with the striker having a release clause of £34 million.
Whilst Milan have spent the vast amount of June in contact with Zirkzee’s agents, a full agreement with the player and his agent has yet to be completed with a key issue for the Italian club throwing the whole deal into disarray.
Reports from Gazzetta dello Sport suggest that whilst Milan are happy with the release clause fee, they are not prepared to pay the agent fees of £12.7 million in order to get the deal across the line, exploring other options in case these demands remain unchanged.
It’s expected that United are happy with the release clause fee and will have limited opposition to the agent fees, whilst Milan’s change of direction may spell concerns for United elsewhere.
Whilst Milan’s main alternative to Zirkzee is Chelsea’s serial loanee Romelu Lukaku, one of Milan’s new targets is LOSC Lille’s Jonathan David, however it’s been reported recently that United are advancing in talks with the Ligue 1 club in order to sign the Canadian to Old Trafford.
Ultimately Zirkzee is still Milan’s main option, but either way, it looks as though United may have to be ready to do battle with AC Milan for at least one of their key strike targets.
