Udinese technical director Gokhan Inler confirmed on Thursday that Udinese midfielder Nicolò Zaniolo will remain at the club following a period of uncertainty over his new contract, with the 27-year-old set to earn around €1.8 million per year after the Friulani exercised their purchase option from Galatasaray.
The resolution matters because it closes the most consequential piece of summer business for a club that finished tenth in Serie A with 50 points. Zaniolo was the player most likely to attract external interest — and, as a separate report confirmed, Milan did hold talks with Udinese regarding him alongside other players — making Inler's public confirmation a deliberate signal of intent.
Inler was direct about what drove Zaniolo's turnaround in Udine. "We were close to him with daily pressure, but positive pressure," he said. "He has always had this fire inside that I like." The framing is instructive: not a player managed at arm's length, but one embedded in a culture of consistent, constructive demand. Inler also noted that minor contractual details still require finalisation, but the direction is unambiguous.
The numbers from Zaniolo's season support the investment. Across 32 Serie A appearances, he contributed five goals and six assists — eleven direct goal involvements for a side that scored 45 in the league — while carrying an average match rating of 6.80. For a player whose career had stalled through a combination of injury, inconsistency, and club instability, those figures represent a meaningful return to relevance. His AI overall score of 75 out of 100, with a potential ceiling of 82, suggests the ceiling has not yet been reached.
Kosta Runjaić's Udinese now head into 2026-27 with their most productive attacking midfielder secured. The next question is whether Zaniolo can convert that fire Inler describes into the kind of consistency that pushes his numbers — and Udinese's ambitions — decisively upward.