Mario Mandžukić has officially joined as a free agent and he will be wearing the #9 jersey in Red and Black.
Milan have decided to reinforce the attack in this January mercato and they’ve brought in someone who can replace Zlatan Ibrahimović when needed.
That someone is Mario Mandžukić. The 34-year-old Croatian underwent the medical check-ups at La Madonnina Clinic yesterday and today he was at Casa Milan to put pen to paper.
“Milan is delighted to announce the signing of Mario Mandžukić. The Club and the striker have agreed on a deal until the end of the current season with an option to extend the contract for the next one,” a statement on the website of the Rossoneri reads.
“Born in Slavonski Brod (Croatia) on May 21, 1986, Mario Mandžukić started his professional career in 2004 with NK Marsonia before joining NK Zagreb and GNK Dinamo Zagreb. In summer 2010, he moved to Germany to play for VfL Wolfsburg (60 appearances and 20 goals) and Bayern Munich (88 appearances and 48 goals). In the 2014/15 season, he went on to play for Atletico Madrid scoring 20 goals in 43 appearances before joining FC Juventus. In his five seasons with FC Juventus, he made 162 appearances and scored 44 goals. In January 2020, he joined Qatari side Al-Duhail with one goal in 7 appearances.
“Mandžukić has won 24 trophies including 1 UCL, 1 UEFA Super Cup, 1 FIFA Cup World Cup, 9 championships and 12 between national Cups and Super Cups. He is the second-best scorer ever of the Croatian national team with 33 goals in 89 appearances.
“Mario Mandžukić will wear the number 9 jersey.” Mario is expected to get €1.8m plus bonuses during his next six months at the club. He’ll be called-up for the match against Atalanta on Saturday.
“I’m thankful to the Milan leadership for the opportunity to join this great club,” he wrote on social media. “It will be a real honour to wear this iconic jersey and fight for the Rossoneri. I can only promise to give my best effort in every game and try to help the team in any way that I can.”
If this man mandzukic can find that ibra form even with his age. Ibra and mando up front is going to be lethal. You play one long ball you will have 2 giants who can fight for it.
He will be very useful
Overall it seems like a rather shrewd move and especially if he currently is at a fairly decent fitness level regardless of his recent complete lack of game time. To my recollection he was generally fielded as a left wing in his time at juventus so id expect him to up his goal tally percentage a bit when fielded with us. I doubt we wil change formation to be playing with two upfront but in games against weaker teams it could give us a better chance of finishing off games faster than previously by 2 big guys like ibra and… Read more »
I think Milan signed Mario as a backup to Ibra.
I have a feeling Leao will be moved to the RW with Rebic LW.
Mandzukic signing is a clear sign that Milan management wants to win the scudetto.
There’s rumors that Real Madrid might cut Diaz loan spell short and bring him back now.
So there might be more surprises.
Yeah that would be my guess as well. When leao and rebic joined us i actually wanted us to field him on the right wing which i wouldnt be too surprised if he could do quite well. On the other hand if reports in regard of marseilles president demanding that their players with expiring contracts to either sign new ones or move away in this window holds up to any scrutiny id expect milan to make a move for the frenchman now or risk seeing him move to another destination. With the potential eminent move of thauvin i’d expect us… Read more »
Kjaer is a Dane not Croat. They played together in Borussia. Whereas, Him and Rebic plays for the Croatia national team
Yeah i know kjær is a dane im one myself so i was referring mandzukic playing with rebic on the croatian international team and kjær previously playing with him in wolfsburg previously anyways thanks for trying to help out.
Welcome Mario…
You mean, “Welcome Super Mario!”
Really hope he’ll hit the ground running and be a great asset to the team. Forza Milan!
Now fire everyone at La Madonnina Clinic and Loan Colombo
Short sited move. Mario is legend, but we have one of those already!
Now is the time to blood a new striker to be the main man next season in champs league.
6 months as a deputy to Ibra and take over next season as the main man.
As in Jovic or Millik
Jovic is a flop and I dont see him doing well in a big team. So no to Jovic. I like Milik but Milan are on a budget and Napoli not interested in a loan. Mario is a good signing. Whether we like it or not Milan cannot spend like Inter and Juventus who by the way will have to sell next summer to balance the books. Our recruitment is smart and cost effective. I honestly prefer loans with option to buy in case a player doesn’t impress we can send them back and not get stuck with them. Like… Read more »
Only reason why eriksen hasnt performed well with inter is that they have brought in a player that really doesnt fit their system. Ive seen several reports in the last half a year or something that mentioned that conte had opposed his arrival from the begining but the president had made the final call to bring him in anyways. Id take eriksen any day to milan if we could buy him for a fairly small ammount (10-20 mil) and set him on a salary of 5-7 mil a year but obviously with hakan around that wont happen. Im sure eriksen… Read more »
Eriksen is a good player he just doesnt fit in Contes system
Not sure about Inter situation with Eriksen. Conte has been pretty vocal about what he wants and Inter always obliged him. For example, Conte wanted Lukaku, Vidal and Kolorov. Inter didn’t argue they got those players for him. So I highly doubt that Conte didn’t want Eriksen. That would be a foolish invest for a player with big wages. As for Eriksen, no thanks. His work rate and movement off the ball is pretty poor to say the least and I’m not in favor of signing players that are lacking in confidence. Milan is currently linked to Irfan Can Kahveci… Read more »
well it was also only in regard of media reports but yeah you have a point but still he doesnt fit theyr system which he would in milan. Anyways he keeps generally performing with the national team so im sure he could be an asset to us. In regard of his workrate i cant say i have any complaints when he is fielded for denmark and i doubt he has become lazy in his time with inter. I dont know much about Irfan Can Kahveci but had heard the rumour. Otavio seems like a pretty decent move if we can… Read more »
Yes I totally agree. Eriksen is really good for Denmark but it’s hard to judge players on the National team compared to the club football. I remember back in the day Mancini and Vialli were amazing for Sampdoria but didn’t do as good for Italy but Schillaci was the opposite. Schillaci was amazing for Italy but decent at club level for Juventus and Inter. Yes, I agree with your point that Eriksen would be a better fit for Milan but if Calhanoglu stays or goes I don’t see Milan investing in him when there’s more upside in younger players like… Read more »
Well i get that but my point was also more that he hasnt lost confidence when playing there as he still performs as a denmark international so i dont see it as a confidence issue but a formation one. Same propably could have been argued in regard of kjær when he joined us as he didnt really have a great time with atalanta either but kept performing for the national team and look how extraordinarily he has been playing with us. Both kjær and eriksen has allways been two players i wouldnt mind having with us. Neither do i as… Read more »
Eriksen has been bad for almost 3yrs now. No thanks
This move is to make sure Milan doesnt burn out before the scudetto.
Opportunistic Maldini knows that he shouldn’t make the Suarez-Cavani mistake ever again. In modern football these old champions refuse to give up, that’s the Ronaldo-Ibra effect. No one can say if he can be as effective as Leao as a cf, or as Rebic as an LW, but we needed a backup on those positions and we bought a champion. Donnarumma future C of Italy Kjaer C of Denmark Kessie Vice Scaroni Ibrahimovic – Ibrahimovic And now this animal who like Kessie and Rebic doesn’t know what is lifting the foot of the gas. Maldini’s team is now clear to… Read more »
You were doing so well until your mentioned that waster Ramos..
waster? boy, you know that Beckenbauer, Baresi Maldini, and Ramos are the best defenders in history? He is not a left-footed center back, but Romagnoli would never be what an injured Ramos can be. He is the CR7 of defense, balls, fitness. He gets his hands dirty and gets the job done. He injured Salah (a complete disgrace to the sport) but by doing that he won the CL. He is old yea, but he might teach Romagnoli how to be a leader because Maldini and Kjaer can’t get into his head.
I wouldnt oppose his arrival but i think he would demand a rather high salary in the vicinity of 8-10 mil which i dont see us accepting. If we could get him on a one year contract at maybe 4 mil with option to extend id take it but there is no reason why he would accept such a low salary even if he also admire milan there would be other teams propably willing to pay a high salary to him (city psg utd ?),
Accepting? You mean affording, Madrid offered 1 million more and 2 years I think, he is still reluctant to sign. Maybe because the ship is sinking, maybe he wants to follow Ronaldo on PSG IDK. But Milan is the second largest team in Europe, we need those kind of players, regardless on the BS of Gazidis. CL is the priority right now I get it, but dreaming is free you know?
Well im sure milan could afford him if they made some sacrifices like selling a player but would it really make sense to have an overpaid soon to be 35 year old player when we have kjær,romagnoli, kalulu, gabbia, mussachio and a very likely tomori arriving for the cb position, id say that money could be invested far better. When that is said i already mentioned i would welcome him here for a short term contract at around 4mil with an option to extend but hiring ramos wont come cheap and he will propably also demand a fairly high sign… Read more »
We don’t need modric or Ramos we have tonali,bennecer,Kjaer ,romagnoli
Look at nice guy Zidane, he is often criticized because he tries his whole team, and 90 percent suck. Who are the ones that he keeps trusting: Benzema, Modric, and Kroos. Madrid needs Modric but we don’t need him?
OK, then why isn’t Madrid trying to steam Kessie, Ben, and Ton? Please explain?
We can argue that Modric is past his prime, expensive and that he doesn’t want to come, but to say that we don’t need him is beyond reason.
in other news, apparently inter’s owners are running out of gas and thus are to sell some portion of their shares to generate money. there could even be a change of ownership soon. normally i wouldnt care about inter but this unstability and potential change of ownership might make sala the milan major want to do due diligence first before giving the greenlight to milan/inter’s stadium project. in short, another pending which means it will be even longer before elliott can sell milan. dammit suning, u had one job. first injustice against uyghurs, then covid and now this. whats wrong… Read more »