Mauro Icardi has not given up hope on staying at Inter and would like a meeting with president Steven Zhang to discuss his future, according to Corriere dello Sport.
Inter CEO Beppe Marotta intends to meet the striker’s wife and agent Wanda Nara next week to inform her of the club’s decision to sell him.
However, Icardi does not want to leave and would like to begin preseason training under new boss Antonio Conte in the hope the Nerazzurri change their mind.
“There’s no place for Icardi in the new Inter and the sooner he realises this the better it will be for everyone,” the paper reported this morning.
“When Conte was appointed last week he spoke about education, respect and a sense of belonging for the club. The interests of the team take precedence over those of the individual and for that reason the door remains closed.”
Both parties appear ready to engage in a summer standoff if the other does not soften their position in the coming weeks.
Marotta would like to sell Icardi to Juventus and bring Paulo Dybala in the other direction, ideally before 30 June so Inter can record a capital gain from the Argentine’s departure.
Icardi and Wanda, meanwhile, do not have the same urgency to resolve the 26-year-old’s future and may try to drag the saga out as long as possible with the aim of sabotaging Inter’s quest for another centre-forward.