Leaving Man City, Kyle Walker Defender Moves To AC Milan

JAKARTA - Defender Kyle Walker has finally left Manchester City. He joined AC Milan as a loan player until the end of the season.

Walker ended his career in the English Premier League. When he was 34, Walker instead chose to look for new challenges in the Italian League. He also joined Milan who borrowed Walker until the end of this season's competition.

Furthermore, Milan will grant a permanent contract to the defenders of this England national team. Neither Milan nor Walker need to negotiate again regarding the contract because both sides have reached an agreement.

Joining the Rossoneri, which is now under the helm of Sergio Conceicao, Walker also experienced a salary cut. At Man City, the player who has 93 times defended The Three Lions receives a salary of 180,000 pounds each week. Meanwhile, in Milan, Walker will receive a salary of 150 thousand pounds or approximately 3 billion rupiahs every week.

Walker's presence made Milan forget Manchester United winger Marcus Rashford. Previously Milan took aim at Rashford on loan. But MU refused a loan offer.

When there was an opportunity to attract Walker, Milan decided to choose the last one and release Rashford. The reason is, Italian clubs are only allowed to recruit one player from England every year.

Milan had competed with city rivals Inter Milan, who also targeted Walker. However, Inter collided with players' salaries that were considered too high.

Apart from Inter, Walker received an offer from the Saudi Arabian club. But he refused to play in Arabia because he could close his chances of defending the England national team. Walker wants to break the record for being the first black player to have 100 caps. Playing in Arab, national team manager Thomas Tuchel will definitely not look at him anymore.

The deal with Milan also ended Walker's eight-year career in Man City. Now, he is playing a new challenge in the Italian Serie A.

Walker follows in the footsteps of a row of Great Britain players playing in Italy such as Scott McTominay, the former Manchester United who moved to Napoli. In addition, there are Tammy Abraham, Fikayo Tomori and Ruben Loftus-Cheek who happen to all play in Milan.

"The agreement has been reached. Kyle will play in Italy soon after all the formality is completed. He is very enthusiastic about his future with this club. He can't wait to wear the very famous jersey. Now, he is an AC Milan player," a source at Milan told The Sun.

Man City itself has no objection to releasing Walker whose club contract expires in 2026. Even manager Pep Guardiola said Walker had expressed his desire to leave Man City a few weeks earlier. Guardola revealed this after Man City beat Salford 8-0 in the FA Cup.

Guardiola didn't play Walker in that match either. Likewise, The Cityzens were not strengthened by the right-back when Brentford was arrested 2-2 and then beat Ipswich Town 6-0 in the English Premier League.

"Kyle accepted the offer to play outside [England]. After winning the trebles, Bayern Munich has already made an offer for him. But the offer was rejected because it wasn't good enough," said Guardiola, who will no longer keep players who no longer want to be with Man City.

"I prefer to play players who only think about this club," he said.

Walker achieved great success and reached the top during his time playing at Man City. He has won 17 trophies since moving from Tottenham Hotspur in 2017. At that time Man City spent up to 50 million pounds to bring in Walker.

He won six league titles, two FA Cups, four English League Cups or Carabao Cups and one Champions League.

Milan itself officially recruited Walker after the end of the loan period. Milan will buy it for 5 million euros. Meanwhile, the player receives a salary of 4 million euros per year.