Samuel Chukwueze showed enough at Fulham to attract a Turkish club willing to pay €15 million for him. The question now is whether the Super Eagles winger sees Trabzonspor as the right place to rebuild his career at 27.
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Trabzonspor have identified Super Eagles winger Samuel Chukwueze as a summer target and are weighing a move worth around €15 million to bring him to the Turkish Süper Lig from AC Milan, FootballInNigeria.com.ng reports. According to Turkish outlet Fanatik, the Black Sea Storm are also exploring the possibility of structuring the deal as an initial loan with a mandatory purchase clause, a model that would allow them to spread the financial commitment while giving the Nigerian a season to establish himself at the club before the full transfer is completed. Chukwueze returns to the San Siro this summer after Fulham chose not to activate the purchase option attached to his loan agreement, leaving his future in Milan’s hands once again.
The 27 year old spent the 2025-26 season at Craven Cottage under the loan arrangement and made 23 Premier League appearances for the Cottagers, scoring three goals and registering four assists as Fulham secured a comfortable mid table finish. Those numbers represent a reasonably productive spell, but they were not convincing enough to persuade Fulham to commit to the purchase option. Chukwueze now finds himself back at a club that signed him from Villarreal in the summer of 2023 for around €21.1 million but has never fully unlocked his potential across three seasons in Italy. Super Eagles fans tracking Chukwueze’s next destination this summer can check the Bet9ja promo code on FootballInNigeria.com.ng for the latest welcome offer.
The Story of Three Difficult Years at Milan
Chukwueze’s AC Milan experience deserves fuller context because it explains why a player of his undoubted ability finds himself in the transfer market at this point in his career. He arrived from Villarreal with a significant reputation, having established himself as one of La Liga’s most dangerous right sided wingers across six seasons in Spain. At Villarreal, his pace, directness, ability to cut in on his left foot and deliver in the final third were weapons that European clubs coveted. Milan paid a premium for those qualities and expected them to translate into immediate impact at the San Siro.
What followed was a three year period defined more by frustration than fulfilment. The combination of inconsistent form, injuries at key moments, and fierce competition for places in the wide attacking roles from players like Christian Pulisic, Rafael Leao and, at various points, other additions to the Milan squad meant Chukwueze rarely got the extended run of games needed to find his rhythm. His loan to Fulham was a direct attempt to address that problem by giving him consistent Premier League minutes away from the pressure of a top four club in one of Europe’s hardest leagues. The Fulham stint helped, but not enough to produce the redemptive numbers that would have triggered the purchase clause. New Bet9ja users who want to follow Chukwueze’s next chapter can use the Bet9ja YOHAIG welcome code before the new Süper Lig season begins in August.
What Trabzonspor Would Offer Chukwueze
Trabzonspor are one of the more ambitious clubs in the Turkish Süper Lig right now, and not purely in terms of spending. They won the Turkish Cup in 2025-26, a domestic trophy that reflects a squad with genuine quality and an organisation operating coherently rather than simply buying names. Their interest in Chukwueze is framed around bolstering their attacking options with a player who brings pace, experience and the profile of a top level winger who simply needs the right environment to rediscover his best form.
The Nigerian connection at Trabzonspor already exists through Chibuike Nwaiwu, the 22 year old centre-back who has established himself as one of the most sought after defenders in the Turkish top flight this season, with Brighton among the clubs having submitted bids for him. Adding Chukwueze would give the Black Sea Storm two prominent Super Eagles players in the same squad, a dynamic that could work positively for both players in terms of settling into a new environment. The Süper Lig also offers UEFA Europa League competition for clubs that qualify, providing Chukwueze a route back into European football if the move materialises. Bet9ja’s promo code for today is available for fans who want to back Nigerian players across the Turkish Süper Lig and European competitions this season.
Milan’s Position and What Comes Next
AC Milan are described as open to offers for Chukwueze as they reshape the squad ahead of 2026-27. He remains under contract, so any deal requires Milan’s cooperation in agreeing terms, but the club’s willingness to listen means this is not a situation where a player is pushing for a move against his employer’s wishes. Milan’s squad restructuring priorities and their desire to manage the wage bill sensibly make a sale at around €15 million, or a loan-to-buy arrangement at a similar valuation, a financially logical outcome for the Rossoneri.
At 27, Chukwueze is at a stage in his career where the next move carries genuine significance. He is past the age where a lateral move is easily explained away as a development step. A Trabzonspor posting, if he arrives and performs, could reignite the conversation about a higher-profile club move in a year or two. If the underlying form issues that defined the Milan years follow him to Istanbul, the trajectory becomes harder to reverse. The stakes are real, the suitor is credible, and the decision for player, agent and selling club will shape the next act of a Super Eagles career that has always carried more potential than its outputs at club level have consistently reflected.
📌 Did You Know?
- Samuel Chukwueze joined Villarreal’s academy from Diamond Football Academy in Nigeria at the age of 17, making him one of several Nigerian players who were identified through the Diamond academy pipeline, which also produced Victor Osimhen among other high profile names in the years before and after Chukwueze’s departure.
- Chukwueze scored the winning goal in the 2021 UEFA Europa League final as Villarreal beat Manchester United on penalties in Gdansk. His goal in the 73rd minute of a 1-1 draw took the tie to extra time and ultimately penalties, making it one of the most important goals ever scored by a Nigerian player in European club competition.
- AC Milan paid approximately €21.1 million to sign Chukwueze from Villarreal in June 2023, a deal that included add-ons. At the time of signing, he was 24 years old and coming off one of the more consistent seasons of his career in La Liga, having scored nine goals and provided six assists across all competitions for Villarreal in 2022-23.
- Trabzonspor won the Turkish Cup in 2025-26, defeating opponents in the final to claim domestic silverware that sits alongside a previous Turkish Süper Lig title in 2021-22, the club’s first league title in 38 years, a championship that was driven significantly by investment in quality players from across European football.
- Fulham’s Craven Cottage, where Chukwueze spent his loan season, is one of the oldest football stadiums still in use in England, with parts of the ground dating back to 1896. The stadium sits on the north bank of the River Thames in west London and has been extensively renovated in recent years to increase capacity and modernise its facilities.
- Chukwueze is left footed but plays predominantly on the right wing, allowing him to cut inside onto his stronger foot and shoot or play through balls into the penalty area. That inverted winger profile has been among the most sought after in European football for the past decade, making his relatively modest output at AC Milan a genuine puzzle for analysts who followed his form at Villarreal.
- If Chukwueze joins Trabzonspor, he would become teammates with Chibuike Nwaiwu, the Super Eagles centre back who is currently the subject of a €34 million bid from Brighton. Two senior Nigerian internationals at the same Turkish club would be the highest-profile Nigerian pairing in the Süper Lig in recent memory.
