Chaka Traore has offered a frank assessment of Rafael Leão, telling MilanNews that the winger has been badly served by his management over recent years while also questioning how Leão has handled his own career.
The former Milan youngster, now at Partizan Belgrade, spoke as part of an ongoing interview series and touched on Leão's future, his ceiling, and life inside the dressing room he left behind. His view carries the weight of someone who trained alongside the Portuguese and saw the day-to-day up close.
Asked how much Milan would lose should Leão leave, Traore did not hide his admiration or his frustration. “We all know Rafa is a tremendous talent and a great player. But over the years, it's been awful to see how he's been managed, and how he's been managed by himself,” he said. “I'm sorry, but we all know that Rafa, when he's in form, can win a game on his own. We saw it against PSG.”
On the recurring criticism from supporters that the issue is hunger rather than talent, Traore was careful not to pass judgement on what he could not see. “Rafa is a professional. I don't know what he's missing, but personally I think that if he wants a change of scenery and believes it could be beneficial for him, he should do it,” he said. “This is something he has to figure out for himself, because we don't know what's going on in his head. Maybe on the pitch we see that he doesn't give 100%, but we don't know what's going on in his life. I can't say what I don't see.”
Pushed on whether Leão has anything to envy in the likes of Yamal, Robben and Ribéry, Traore was emphatic. “Absolutely not. He can do everything and he has it all: pace, physique, technique. He has everything it takes to be a champion, but only he can decide whether he wants to reach a certain level or not. It's entirely up to him.”
He also weighed in on where a move might take the 27-year-old, having been linked with Turkish football. “Given his potential and the player he is, he's a player fit for the top five leagues. Like the Premier League? Yes. It wouldn't be nice to see him in Turkey, that's my point.”
Traore's praise was not reserved for Leão alone. Naming the best teammates from his time at the club, he listed Christian Pulisic, Tijjani Reijnders, Mike Maignan and Theo Hernández, and had particular words for Samuel Chukwueze. “He's a very, very good player. If he stays at Milan, he'll show who he really is,” Traore said, singling out the winger's assist against Celtic as the kind “made by champions.”
The lighter stretch of the interview ran through the dressing room's characters: Alessandro Florenzi as the tough-love mentor who “beat me up every day” for his own good, Maignan and Matteo Gabbia as the serious professionals, and Theo as the one prone to mood swings who “didn't show confidence to everyone, especially the young ones.”
Traore's words land at a moment when Leão's future is once again unsettled, and coming from a former teammate rather than an outside voice, they read less as criticism than as an appeal. Where it goes next, as Traore himself put it, is down to the player.