Lyon move and Fonseca support doing wonders for Milan loanee Athekame
Zachary Athekame has been one of the bright spots for Lyon so far this season, certainly making the most of his loan spell away from AC Milan.
After seeing him in pre-season, Ruben Amorim – together with the Milan management – made the decision to send Athekame out on loan. The Paulo Fonseca-led Lyon expressed their interest and got the deal over the line quickly.
As revealed by the formula, a dry loan with no option to buy, Milan’s main motivation for the loan was to ensure that the youngster gets the right playing time to grow. So far, it would be fair to say that they absolutely made the right decision.
Perfect start for Athekame
While Athekame likely would have struggled to get a starting spot at Milan this season, he has started all of the league games so far for Milan. In addition to that, he has quickly become a key player for an unbeaten Lyon side (three wins and two draws), registering two goals and two assists.
Yesterday evening, he added one goal and one assist to his tally in the game against Stade Rennes, receiving a lot of praise on social media and high ratings on stats websites. Fonseca is doing something right with the Swiss international and Milan are over the moon so far.
Of course, considering just how well he has played so far, it’s only natural for the Rossoneri to ask if they should have kept him instead. However, as said above, he likely would have struggled to get consistent playing time and then the situation would have been different.
Not that loan moves are a guarantee for playing time and development, though. David Odogu was also sent out on a dry loan this summer, joining Toulouse, but he hasn’t played a single minute yet. Milan fans should thank the support of Fonseca, in other words.
If Athekame continues like this, then there will surely be some offers waiting for the Rossoneri at the end of the season. The fact that there is no buy-out option means they are safe and can just enjoy the wing-back’s season with the French side.
