Torino president Urbano Cairo has revealed they will not sell Andrea Belotti to Italian rivals AC Milan this summer.
The Rossoneri have been heavily linked with a move to Milan this summer and Vincenzo Montella’s side have reportedly already had several offers turned down.
Manchester United and Chelsea were interested in Belotti earlier in the summer but both clubs have since settled on other strikers and aren’t likely to reignite their pursuit given the Italy international has a €100m (£89.5m) release clause for foreign sides in his current deal.
Milan were left as the only club actively pursuing the 23-year-old but would not appear to have any resources to fund a club-record move for Belotti after conceding they can no longer afford to sign Bayern Munich outcast Renato Sanches.
Nevertheless, Torino are desperate to keep Belotti and Cairo believes €100m may even be too cheap for their star man.
“He is an extremely important player for us and we want to keep him,” Cairo told reporters, via Tuttomercato. “There is a clause that would force me to lose possession of the player and, if somebody were to come from abroad and pay it, then the ball would move into Belotti’s court,”
“Seeing the numbers doing the rounds, like €222m for Neymar or €180m for [Kylian] Mbappe, then Belotti has done incredible things in a league like the Italian one and it makes you think that €100m is the right price, or perhaps that is too low.”
Only two players scored more Serie A goals than Belotti last season (26), while no player in Europe’s top five leagues has won more penalties than the Torino ace in the last two season (11).
