The Champions League Trap: Why Man United’s Success is a Transfer Curse for Andre Onana and Inter | OneFootball

For André Onana, the return of Champions League football to Old Trafford is a double-edged sword. While Manchester United’s second-half of-the-season surge toward the top of the table has reignited the club’s pride, it has simultaneously created a financial barrier between the Cameroonian and his former home, Inter Milan.

Under the terms of his contract at United, a return to Europe’s elite would trigger a wage hike, catapulting Onana from a base of £120,000 to around £170,000 per week. For a goalkeeper who has never quite settled in the Premier League, this success on the pitch is ironically pricing him out of a dream return to the San Siro that his representatives were reportedly discussing in Milan just this week.

The fiscal gulf between the clubs is now wider than ever. During his original stint at Inter, Onana was seen as a “bargain” at €3 million net per season—a figure that cost the Nerazzurri roughly €3.9 million gross thanks to Italy’s now-defunct “Growth Decree” tax breaks.

Today, with those tax incentives abolished, matching even that modest salary would cost Inter nearly €6 million gross, a non-starter for a club still navigating strict financial sustainability. Meanwhile, Onana’s current loan spell at Trabzonspor has ensured that he will still get his salary expectations met; by taking advantage of Turkey’s 20% flat tax, he is effectively banking close to his Manchester United take-home pay during their Champions League seasons.

For Onana, though, this isn’t merely a case of a player chasing the highest bidder.

Onana’s financial demands are underpinned by a noble, if expensive, secondary life: the André Onana Foundation.

Every pound “lost” to the Italian taxman or a wage cut is a pound taken away from the free pediatric surgeries and medical infrastructure he funds in Cameroon. As Inter searches for a long-term successor to Yann Sommer, they find themselves caught in a predicament, and so does Andre Onana: they want the man who led them to a Champions League final, but they cannot afford the man who now needs Manchester United’s Champions League bonuses to save lives 3,000 miles away.

Ultimately, this financial structure creates a set of “golden handcuffs” that make a permanent departure from Old Trafford almost impossible without a massive compromise from either or both sides.

The Importance of the André Onana Foundation

When Onana moved to Turkey, his camp made it clear that his priority was not personal luxury, but the fiscal survival of the André Onana Foundation. As publications said at the time, “the player, who has charity commitments, particularly via his André Onana Foundation, is keen to maximise his earnings.”

With the foundation’s medical campaigns requiring millions in consistent funding for life-saving surgeries, Onana simply cannot afford to take a “sporting pay cut” to facilitate a romantic return to Italy.

If Manchester United secures Champions League football for the 2026/27 season, his salary will automatically bounce back to £170,000 per week, a figure that would represent nearly €11 million gross per year for Inter Milan under current Italian tax laws—triple what they paid him during his first stint. For context, Inter’s wage bill for the 2025-26 season is €141.5 million gross per season. And in recent seasons, Inter have been making efforts to slash their wage bill. It is highly unlikely that Onana’s demands would be met by Inter Milan.

With a contract that doesn’t expire until 2028, Andre Onana holds all the leverage; unless United is willing to “pay him off” to bridge the wage gap or a club like Inter breaks their entire wage structure, he remains stuck to a contract that pays him far too much to leave, yet leaves him in a professional limbo that only a lucrative, tax-efficient environment like Turkey can currently satisfy. Trabzonspor can afford to pay him his base salary, but they won’t pay him the amount that he will be on if Man United gets Champions League Football next season.

With all this being said, Andre Onana hasn’t given up on Old Trafford, either.

Betting on his own ability, the keeper believes a future manager might value his ball-playing style more than former Man United manager Ruben Amorim did. Unless United are prepared to bankroll a massive payoff, Onana’s high-stakes salary and his commitment to his charity mean he’ll only move on his own financial terms.