Charles De Ketelaere is enjoying his loan spell with Atalanta since joining last August from AC Milan. The football career is going so well that he doesn’t want to return to San Siro this June when the deal is off.
De Ketelaere has scored 10 goals in 36 games for Atalanta this season. The Belgian’s latest outstanding performance was when demolished Liverpool at Anfield last week, sending one assist for Gianluca Scamacca.
Charles De Ketelaere is happy about his improvement with Atalanta
The 23-year old versatile attacker also admitted that he was not having a good time back in Milan with no single goal scored in 40 appearances. De Ketelaere added that joining Atalanta was a good move for his improvement.
“I’ve learned a lot from the negative season at Milan,” he told HLN via Football Italia. “It helped me to take steps forward and it will help me more in the future. You can learn a lot from a good season, but you learn even more from seasons that are not so good.
“I am happy at Atalanta; I’ve found the right environment for me and my playing style, which only Atalanta could give me. We play good football and all the players know what to do. Gasperini is tough but also fair.”
The Club Brugge academy graduate respected Rossoneri’s reputation in European football. However, for De Ketelaere, his focus now is to step up his game for his career ahead. Besides, he has found a supportive environment for his development in Atalanta.
“If it were up to me, I’d stay here because I can further improve. Milan is a big club, but I need to play right now and I don’t want to end up on the bench again. Atalanta are helping me, from the staff to my teammates and the fans who have made me feel at home.”
De Ketelaere was Milan’s most expensive signing with €36.5 million when coming in 2022. His 25 goals from 120 games in three seasons in Belgium is what made Milan go for the price in the summer of that year.