Where did Milan get the money for Ramos? [Bonus Article]
Did I hear €74m?! Plus bonuses?! If a statement signing was what you wanted from Milan to kickstart the summer, then you definitely got it. While that’s all fun and games, especially since Goncalo Ramos is a great player, the next question becomes where the Rossoneri suddenly got the money from. Let’s take a look.
For years and years, fans have been crying out for Milan to invest properly in the centre-forward role. It’s rather paradoxical to utter that sentence when you consider that €38m was paid for Andre Silva back in 2017, €35m on Krzysztof Piatek in 2019, €30m on Santiago Gimenez in 2025, and €37m on Christopher Nkunku in 2026. Or actually, rather than being paradoxical, it might just prove the point.
Four expensive strikers in almost ten years is not a whole lot, not to mention that proper strikers tend to cost a whole lot more than the €40m mark these days. That has certainly been proved by the stats of the aforementioned players, scoring a combined 41 goals in 154 games. None of them has played more than 50 games for the club either, so clearly the Rossoneri haven’t succeeded with their recruitment.
It’s rather refreshing, as such, to see such a big amount being spent on a striker. He could still flop, absolutely, but you could argue this is more of a high-risk, high-reward situation. Again, opting for a lower risk clearly hasn’t worked as Milan had hoped, so it was about time to switch up. But how did they afford to make that switch? Several factors are at play.
Short version
Considering the €74m transfer fee and the five-year contract, Milan will amortise €14.8m each year. He will earn €5m per year plus bonuses, which will cost the Rossoneri at least €9.25m each year. His total annual cost thus comes out to €24.05m, which is by far the highest in the squad.
Milan are still in a less-than-ideal situation, due to the Champions League failure, but at least they have a lot of sales to make. I only included ten in my mercato bonus prediction and it still freed up a lot of room on the accounts, so there are ways to make Ramos’ costs less heavy.
In addition to making sales, there is seemingly a willingness from Milan to increase their squad costs a little. This isn’t necessarily linked to exiting UEFA’s Settlement Agreement, which would have happened anyway, but rather their strong overall financial health from recent years.
I initially said that €74m was ‘outrageous’ for a player like Ramos, but having had some time to think, it makes more sense. Few top strikers would accept a team with no Champions League football, and the days of just spending €30-40m on a striker have to be over for Milan (it clearly didn’t work).
Double the cost of Nkunku
With a transfer fee of €74m, how much will Ramos actually cost Milan on the accounts each year? Since it’s a record-breaking fee, I’m sure you already understand that the amortisation will be a significant amount and certainly higher than the gross salary. Indeed, given the five-year contract, it comes out at €14.8m per year. The highest before that was Nkunku at €7.4m, so exactly double!
The salary is, at least, quite modest for a player with such a high transfer fee. It wouldn’t have been surprising if I said he will earn €15-20m per year, let’s put it that way, but Milan went for their usual maximum which is €5m plus an additional €2m in bonuses per year. That comes out to €9.25m gross, assuming no bonuses get triggered, which makes the total cost €24.05m on the accounts each year.
Nkunku’s costs have been mentioned time after time for being too expensive, but Ramos beats him by about €7m. Of course, had the Frenchman actually performed consistently, then I’m sure there wouldn’t have been as many complaints. Therefore, as long as Ramos provides the effect that Milan are hoping for, then the cost can be justified with relative ease.
