'Quality player': Inter Milan admit interest in £35m star Rangers could have had for £1m
08/05/2024 23:00
Just one day after Giovanni van Bronckhorst went public with Rangers’ failed attempt to lure a member of Borussia Dortmund’s Champions League final XI to Ibrox.
Ian Maatsen, so impressive during Wednesday’s colossal shutting out of Paris Saint-Germain, was ‘on my list’, Van Bronckhorst told RTL.
“In the end, it didn't work out.”
You can say the same of Xavi Simons, an Eredivisie Golden Boot winner also wanted by Van Bronckhorst at Rangers before heading to Germany and tearing it up with RB Leipzig. Joey Veerman, after helping fire PSV Eindhoven to their first Eredivisie title in six years on Sunday, was labelled perhaps the finest passer of a ball anywhere in European football by Rafael van der Vaart.
Just to continue that painful trend of ‘what might have been’, Serie A champions Inter Milan have admitted their admiration for a forward who, as recently as 2022, was valued at around £1 million and on Rangers’ radar, per The Telegraph.
Rangers could have had Albert Gudmundsson
Flash forward two years and, having successfully made the transition from the Eredivisie to Serie B to Serie A and taking his price-tag from £1 million to £35 million, this is only the beginning of a summer of much speculation for Genoa’s Albert Gudmundsson.
“He is a quality player who Inter like,” admits Piero Ausilio, the Nerazzuri’s sporting director told an Instagram Live. “As well as other teams.”
Ausilio does go on to admit that Inter are pretty well stocked in the attacking department, with Porto freebie Mehdi Taremi joining Lautaro Martinez and Marcus Thuram. But with Marko Arnautovic and Alexis Sanchez potentially on their way, room can certainly be made for a player of Gudmundsson’s talents.
Now valued at £35 million
Always a highly-intelligent and versatile performer, the Iceland international has added a real ruthless streak to his game in Italy. A tally of 14 Serie A goals this season (16 in all competitions) is nearly as many as Gudmundsson managed during four years at AZ Alkmaar.
Comparisons with one Mo Salah – who ascended to previously unexpected heights in Italy with Fiorentna and Roma – are certainly justified.
"For Albert, we had an offer three days before the (January) transfer window closed,” Genoa’s CEO Andres Blazquez told Tuttomercatoweb, spelling out exactly how much it would take to snatch Gudmundsson away from the Grifone.
“Fiorentina called me and told me they wanted the Icelander. I told them not to send us offers because we wouldn't sell him.
"I told (Fiorentina); 'I'll tell you a price so you understand that we don't want to sell him. 40 million'. An offer came and it took me three minutes to say no. I thanked them for the offer but declined."
