When the imagination inspires the price: AC Milan shows generosity in the transfer of YB footballer Zachary Athekame

"Zach" is a nice guy, says football official Jean-François Collet, "he has a strong family, a good upbringing, and lives by his values." Collet presides over Xamax, the Challenge League club that was a stopover for Zachary Athekame before he joined Young Boys in 2024. Collet fully expected Athekame to make it in Bern. But to think he'd join AC Milan just one year later?

"I wouldn't have dared to imagine it," says Collet. Last Friday, YB announced that the 20-year-old right-back would be moving to AC Milan in Serie A. According to the "Gazzetta dello Sport," the transfer fee is 10 million euros. It is unclear whether this figure is generously rounded up and includes potential bonuses. Right-back Stephan Lichtsteiner moved from Lille to Juventus Turin for a similar sum in 2011. The difference: Lichtsteiner had around 40 caps at the time and was 27 years old.

What is clear, however, is that the sum raised for Athekame is partly driven by the fantasy factor. Perhaps he will prevail in Milan, perhaps he can be resold one day. Football as speculation. If he does move on as planned, YB will participate with a few percent. Just as, after the Milan deal, Athekame's former employer, Xamax, is now also involved. With 20 percent, according to "Blick." This figure is "wrong," says Collet, without going into details.

In Neuchâtel, the Geneva native earned a few thousand a month; in Bern, after his contract extension a few months ago, he was likely earning around €250,000 annually; in Italy, it's said to be around a million. Net, of course. The contract runs until 2030. A steep rise, both athletically and financially.

The transfer is surprising, given Athekame's relatively unimpressive record. He played for the U-21 team, spent just over a season in the Challenge League with Xamax, and narrowly missed promotion to the Super League in 2024. Most recently, he was involved in a season in Bern that won't go down in the club's annals. A miserable start, a change of coach, a bit of recovery, but a slow start almost to the end, capped off by the cup semifinal exit in Biel.

At the same time, the Champions League showcase opened. Although YB earned a hefty sum of millions there, they were virtually sidelined: 8 games, 0 points, 3:24 goals. Athekame played in every match. That can't have been a great advertisement, especially for a defender, even though YB says Athekame was one of the best.

His strengths: physicality, speed, fearlessness, passing ability. When someone is still running up and down the touchline in a game just before the end, it makes an impression. There are supposedly studies that place him in the top rankings at his position. One plus: He, the Geneva native who once fell through the cracks at Servette FC, quickly finds his way around in new places. In Neuchâtel, in Bern, possibly even in Milan.

He made his YB debut in 2024 in a Champions League match against Aston Villa (0-3). However, the debut wasn't his best YB match.

Athekame's advisors speak of an "atypical career path," a "beautiful story" of a young footballer who has the "right people" around him and is taking the "right steps." A "project" that wasn't initiated yesterday. One advantage of the destination is the fact that Milan is not far from Geneva.

YB did everything right in the Athekame case. Christoph Spycher, who, as YB's sporting director, sets the standard for such personnel matters, is known in the industry as a tough negotiator. Anyone who sells a defender for that much money after a string of defeats and an average of three goals conceded in the Champions League isn't going to say no. Especially since, compared to FC Basel, the Bernese club's last major transfer (Fabian Rieder) was two years ago.

The transfers of Athekame, Filip Ugrinic (Valencia), Cheikh Niasse (definitely to Verona), and Cedric Itten (Fortuna Düsseldorf) brought the Bernese club around €20 million. One might conclude that they've been successful recently, showcasing their talent week after week in every position. Spycher emphasizes that Athekame was "the best right-back in the league" in the second half of the season.

There remains the role of AC Milan, which earned over €100 million thanks to sales to the money-rich Premier League and Saudi Arabia (Tijjani Reinders, Malick Thiaw, Theo Hernández). This explains the fantasy price for Athekame, as well as that for Swiss midfielder Ardon Jashari (from Club Bruges, over €35 million).

The question now is how Athekame's journey continues. Will he even play? In 2024, the then 21-year-old YB defender Aurèle Amenda moved to Eintracht Frankfurt for almost €10 million. His Bundesliga record: eight appearances, 89 minutes, one injury. In 2023, Fabian Rieder left Bern for Rennes at the age of 21 for a large sum. He made 15 Ligue 1 appearances, followed by 21 Bundesliga appearances after a loan transfer to Stuttgart. The record is not satisfactory.

In 2018, YB lost 3-0 to Juventus in the Champions League in Turin. The Bernese didn't play well, but Djibril Sow, then 21, nevertheless stood out, Spycher recalls. In 2019, Sow, now under contract with Sevilla FC, moved from YB to Eintracht Frankfurt for €14 million. Zachary Athekame can show that things can be different at a young age. More like Sow, less like Amenda and Rieder.