Rumour Mongering: Liverpool, Bayern, & Barca Battle for Inter’s Bastoni

After a solid if unspectacular first season as a senior player at Inter Milan last year, 21-year-old centre half Alessandro Bastoni has established himself as a matchday mainstay this season as I Nerazzurri march towards their first Serie A title since 2009-10.

As such, it probably wouldn’t be surprising to hear he’s on the radar of some top clubs. And so it is, with chatter out of Italy that Liverpool, Barcelona, and Bayern Munich all see him as a top target and would be willing to pay upwards of €50M in the summer.

However, according to La Gazzetta dello Sport, at least, Inter are loathe to sell such a both promising and increasingly proven talent, no matter the fee, and given Inter look certain to win the league this season it’s hard to see the player wanting to move on.

When an Italian outlet puts forward a name and claims that three of the game’s biggest clubs are lining to pay a €50M-plus fee to sign him—with no previous rumours of interest on the ends of any of those clubs—the reaction should probably be skepticism.

With that kind of a set up to the transfer tale, it’s almost always a case of either a selling club trying to drum up business or an agent looking to get his client an improved deal—and if one accepts Inter aren’t looking to sell, it’s probably the latter here.

On that front, it’s perhaps worth noting Bastoni signed a his current contract when joining Inter in 2019 after a two-season loan at Atalanta, the club he grew up at and that sold him to Inter for €31 in 2017 before having him returned to them for two seasons.

That deal, signed when he was 20, runs through 2023, and while on the strength of this season it’s not unrealistic to think clubs like Liverpool, Barcelona, and Bayern would be interested, an improved deal and extended stay at Inter seems more likely.