Andrej Kostic will train with the AC Milan first team through pre-season and try to force his way into Ruben Amorim's plans, with his agent Darko Ristic playing down talk of a loan to Serie B in comments to MilanNews.
Milan's centre-forward department is one of the most watched stories at the club right now. The senior striker situation remains a work in progress, and behind it sits a genuinely interesting group of young forwards. Kostic, signed from Partizan in the winter, is now being spoken about in the same breath as Francesco Camarda, and how Milan handle both will shape the front line for years rather than months. For a club that has often struggled to promote academy attackers into real minutes, having two credible prospects at once is a nice change of problem.
Kostic arrived in January after interest from several clubs, and Ristic framed the choice in simple terms. "AC Milan is one of the biggest clubs in world football. When a club like AC Milan calls you, you simply can't say no," he said, adding that Milan became "the first and only choice" once they entered the race.
The most concrete line concerns his immediate future. There has been talk in Italy of a loan to Serie B to build up minutes, but Ristic insisted the focus is entirely on Milan for now. "Andrej is completely focused on Milan right now," he said, while stressing that the club knows best what suits his development. That reads less like a closed door and more like a decision Milan haven't finalised yet.
On the competition with Camarda, Ristic leaned into it rather than away from it. "Healthy competition helps young players improve," he said, describing the pair pushing each other as "a really good problem to have" for the club.
The question a Milan fan actually wants answered is whether Kostic is ready for Serie A this season, and here the agent's optimism has to be weighed against reality. Kostic is a 2007-born striker who has already played senior football at Partizan and represented Serbia at youth level, which is ahead of the curve for his age. But minutes for a teenage forward at a club chasing a Champions League return are hard to guarantee, which is exactly why the loan idea exists in the first place.
Pre-season is the audition, and Amorim is the one holding the decision. If Kostic convinces him, he stays and fights for scraps of first-team time. If not, a Serie B loan quietly comes back onto the table.