Football: Milik linked with January move to Atlético Madrid

Polish striker Arkadiusz Milik is likely to move to Spain’s league leaders Atlético Madrid, Spanish daily “Marca” reported.

The newspaper placed the Polish player on the front page, suggesting that Milik will be replacing Diego Costa, who, on Tuesday, had his contract with the club from the Spanish capital terminated.

This is not the first time Atlético have been interested in purchasing Milik. Journalists of “Marca” wrote that he will be a great successor of Costa, who played only 207 minutes this season and scored only twice.

Out of favour at Napoli, Arek Milik could join @atletienglish to replace Diego Costa 🧐https://t.co/ALTnSbE30t pic.twitter.com/pf7rxQEJBs

— MARCA in English (@MARCAinENGLISH) December 29, 2020

After a conflict with the chairman of Napoli, Aurelio De Laurentis, Milik was removed from the first squad of the Italian club. He was linked with AS Roma, AC Fiorentina, AC Milan, Juventus, but Napoli set an off-putting high price for a player in the final year of his contract.

In January, Milik will be allowed to talk to another club over a potential free transfer in the summer as his contract expires in June. But if he wants a move in January’s transfer window, he will still command a fee and most importantly have to receive Napoli’s (so in fact Mr De Laurentis’) permission.

“Marca” wrote that relations between Atlético and Napoli are good, so there is a decent chance of a swift agreement.

Milik joined Napoli in 2016, after a good performance at UEFA Euro in France. The club from Naples paid around EUR 32 mln for the transfer of the Polish player from Dutch AFC Ajax. In his 122 matches for Napoli, the Polish striker scored 48 goals.