Ismaël Bennacer Leaves Milan for Al-Gharafa in Qatar
The end came quietly, via a club statement and a farewell video, but the weight of it will be felt for a while at San Siro. Milan have confirmed the mutual termination of Ismaël Bennacer’s contract, clearing the way for the Algerian to join Al-Gharafa in the Qatar Stars League.
A six-year chapter closes. One of the pillars of their 19th Scudetto is gone.
From engine room to exit door
Bennacer arrived from Empoli in 2019 as a clever signing, a player with upside rather than a guaranteed star. He leaves as a midfielder who made 178 appearances in red and black and helped drag Milan back to the summit of Serie A under Stefano Pioli in 2021-22.
At his peak in that title season, he set the rhythm. Snapping into tackles, recycling possession, threading vertical passes through pressure. In a side full of emerging talents, he was the metronome in the middle.
Then came the knee.
He has not played a competitive game for Milan since February 2025, the serious injury forcing him to the margins and then out on loan. The last 18 months have been spent trying to rebuild his career at Marseille and Dinamo Zagreb, far from the San Siro roar that once felt like home.
The mutual termination underlines the reality: the version of Bennacer that dominated midfields for Milan has not been seen for a long time. Both club and player needed a clean break.
A farewell from the heart
If the decision was cold, the goodbye was anything but. Bennacer chose to address the supporters directly with an emotional video message on social media.
“Dear Milan fans. Last year, I said goodbye without ever thinking those words would turn out to be a farewell,” he admitted, hinting at how abruptly the relationship has ended.
He spoke of more than five years “wearing this shirt with pride and passion” alongside “incredible team-mates,” always backed by the Curva Sud’s relentless backing. The Scudetto, he said, stands as one of the “most beautiful memories” of his career. Playing at San Siro, “one of the greatest honours.”
It was a reminder of how deeply this stint had marked him. For all the injuries and loans, he never felt like a peripheral figure in his own story.
Numbers that tell a story
Since 2019, only six players have played more games for Milan than Bennacer. Rafael Leão leads that list with 291 appearances, but the Algerian’s 178 outings place him firmly in the core group that carried the club through its resurgence.
Those numbers matter. They speak to trust from successive coaches, to the consistency he once offered, and to the void his departure now creates in terms of experience and dressing-room presence.
The curtain now falls definitively. The loans to Marseille and Dinamo Zagreb were temporary escapes. This contract termination is the final act.
A new life in Qatar, a new Milan in motion
Bennacer’s next stop is Al-Gharafa, where he will work under Pedro Martins after the Qatari club’s fourth-place finish last season. It is a fresh chapter in a different footballing landscape, one that offers him the chance to rebuild his rhythm away from the glare and grind of Serie A.
Back in Milan, the project moves on without him.
Rúben Amorim is now the man in charge, tasked with shaping a new identity while navigating a demanding calendar. Milan are wrapping up their Asian pre-season tour, including a high-profile friendly against Chelsea at Gelora Bung Karno Stadium in Jakarta, before another test against Manchester United at the Tarczynski Arena in Poland.
Then the real thing begins. The 2026-27 Serie A campaign opens away to Torino on August 23, a tricky first hurdle for a side in transition.
By then, Bennacer will be thousands of kilometres away, wearing different colours, chasing a different dream. But in the stands at San Siro, his name will still trigger memories of that title run, of a midfield that once controlled games and a player who, for a time, embodied Milan’s revival.
The club has turned the page. The question now is who writes the next chapter in the space he leaves behind.
