Milan’s Jose Mauri reportedly set for July exit, with Mexico’s Cruz Azul the reported desination

AC Milan’s Jose Mauri is reportedly set to leave the club in July, at the end of his contract, and it’s rumored that he will be heading to Mexico to link up with CDMX giants Cruz Azul.

Mauri has found it difficult to crack the lineup at Milan during his time at the club, and after Milan spent big to bring in Brazil international midfielder Lucas Paquetà, Mauri moved even further down the pecking order, and the writing was absolutely on the wall about his future with the rossoneri.

Mauri joined Milan from Parma in the summer of 2015 as a free agent, but the 22 year-old never really made an impact in the Milan first team. He spent the 2016-17 season on loan at Empoli before returning to Milan.

This season, Mauri’s only made six appearances, four in Serie A, and even then he only made those Serie A appearances after both Giacomo Bonaventura and Lucas Biglia were injured. Tiémoué Bakayoko and Franck Kessie have been the preferred central midfield combination while Biglia has been out and with Paquetà coming into the side, Gennaro Gattuso has gone back to his favored 4-3-3, which he had noticeably abandoned when Mauri was the option to play another central midfielder as part of a midfield trio.

All told, Mauri’s career at Milan never really seemed to take off, but it looks like he’s got a second chance if he goes to Cruz Azul. Mauri’s only 22 years old, and Cruz Azul are one of the biggest teams in Mexico.

Cruz Azul are coming off of a finals loss to their eternal rivals Club América in the 2018 Apertura campaign, and also picked up a win in the 2018 Copa MX Apertura as well. They lost one of their most influential midfielders in the January transfer window, Iván Marcone, who returned to Argentina to join Boca Juniors. Marcone had a short stay in Liga MX, as he had joined Cruz Azul in the summer of 2018.

Now Mauri and Marcone play a different role, but he would still be a good reinforcement for Cruz Azul to get a young player as a free agent, even if his time at Milan was nothing special. Milan, on the other hand, also get to move on from a player that never really seemed to be able to make an impact.