CM: The centre-back Milan strongly evaluated before signing Pavlovic | OneFootball

AC Milan ended up signing Strahinja Pavlovic to reinforce the centre-back department, but there was another option they concretely evaluated: Diogo Leite of Union Berlin.

Calciomercato.com recall that Milan ended up adding Pavlovic and also Emerson Royal from Spurs during the window that has just closed, but the defence could have spoken even more Portuguese because Geoffrey Moncada and Zlatan Ibrahimovic had an eye on Leite.

The Union Berlin centre-back – who is left-footed and can also play left-back – has been watched by Milan for a while, even when he was in the youth sector of Porto (with whom he won a UEFA Youth League) before collecting 51 senior appearances in the first team and moving to Germany in 2022.

Before the Rossoneri decided to make a move for Pavlović they took a serious look at Leite. He was one of the best in the entire Bundesliga in terms of duels won, kilometres covered and balls recovered.

His numbers even attracted the attention of Real Madrid in January, while at the end of the season an attempt was made by RB Leipzig, but they came to nothing and thus Leite continues to build on his 82 appearances for Union.

Milan were not the only Italian club to recently show interest in the 25-year-old: in the very last days of the window, Fiorentina also tried to secure his services. The Berlin club asked for a permanent deal and at least €16m, so they turned to Matias Moreno who they got from Belgrano for around €5m.