Gonzalo Higuain joins AC Milan in swap deal

Gonzalo Higuain has joined AC Milan in swap deal

Argentine striker Gonzalo Higuain has joined Serie A club AC Milan, while Italy defender Leonardo Bonucci has moved the opposite way.

Higuain, 30, has been replaced at the Allianz Stadium by Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo.

The seven-time European champions will reportedly pay an initial £16m as part of a season-long loan deal for Higuain, with the option of making the move permanent for an additional £32m at the end of the season.

AC Milan’s Instagram account posted a video of Higuain in their club colours with the caption “Higuain, ready to start”.

Higuain, who was linked with a move to Premier League side Chelsea, joined Juve from Napoli for a then domestic record fee of £75.3m in 2016 and scored 40 league goals in two seasons.

READ: Leonardo Bonucci rejoins Serie A champions Juventus

Gonzalo Higuain was born in France, attaining Argentine citizenship in 2007, and now holds dual nationality.

He started his career with Argentine club River Plate, before a transfer to Real Madrid in January 2007 for €12 million.

His time in Spain saw him win honours including three La Liga titles, and score 107 goals in 190 league appearances.

He joined Italian side Napoli for €40 million in July 2013, where he won the Coppa Italia during his first season.

In the 2015–16 season, he scored 36 league goals, winning the Capocannoniere title and equalling Gino Rossetti’s 87-year-old record for goals in an Italian top-flight season.

As a result of his goal scoring exploits in Naples, Italian champions Juventus signed him for €90 million in 2016, making him the most expensive South American footballer of all time (until Neymar’s transfer to PSG in 2017); his transfer fee was the highest ever paid by an Italian team and also the highest of a player transferring within any domestic league.

Higuaín has been a full international for Argentina since 2009; he has represented the country at three FIFA World Cups and three Copa América tournaments, helping them to second-place finishes at the 2014 World Cup, the 2015 Copa América and the Copa América Centenario in 2016.