Alexis Saelemaekers (born 27 June 1999) is a Belgian professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a winger for

Serie A The Serie A (), officially known as Serie A Enilive in Italy and Serie A Made in Italy abroad for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Italy and the highest tier of the Italian football league system. Establish ...

club

AC Milan (), commonly referred to as Milan or AC Milan () mainly outside of Italy, is an Italian professional Football club (association football), football club based in Milan, Lombardy. Founded in 1899, the club competes in the Serie A, the top tie ...

and the Belgium national team. Although Saelemaekers primarily plays in attack, he can also play as a full-back and wing-back.

Club career

Anderlecht

In October 2017, Saelemaekers signed a contract at

Anderlecht Anderlecht (; ) is one of the List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the south-western part of the region, it is bordered by the City of Brussels, Forest, B ...

until 2019. On 16 February 2018, he made his official debut against

Sint-Truiden Sint-Truiden (; ; ) is a City status in Belgium, city and Municipalities in Belgium, municipality located in the Provinces of Belgium, province of Limburg (Belgium), Limburg, Flemish Region, Belgium. With more than 41,500 inhabitants, it is on ...

. He came on as a substitute in the 77th minute. On 8 June 2018, Saelemaekers renewed his contract until 2022.

AC Milan

On 31 January 2020,

signed Saelemaekers on loan, with an option to buy. Milan reportedly agreed a €3.5 million fee plus €1 million in bonuses in case of a permanent signing. The same year on 2 February, he made his league debut as a substitute to

Davide Calabria Davide Calabria (; born 6 December 1996) is an Italian professional Association footballer, footballer who plays as a Full-back (association football), right-back for club Bologna FC 1909, Bologna, on loan from AC Milan. Club career AC Milan C ...

in a 1–1 draw against

Verona Verona ( ; ; or ) is a city on the Adige, River Adige in Veneto, Italy, with 255,131 inhabitants. It is one of the seven provincial capitals of the region, and is the largest city Comune, municipality in the region and in Northeast Italy, nor ...

on 2 February 2020. On 1 July 2020, Saelemaekers signed a contract with Milan which would keep him at the club until 30 June 2024. On 18 July, he scored his first goal for the club in a 5–1 home win over

Bologna Bologna ( , , ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the Emilia-Romagna region in northern Italy. It is the List of cities in Italy, seventh most populous city in Italy, with about 400,000 inhabitants and 150 different nationalities. Its M ...

in Serie A. In October 2020, Saelemaekers scored his first goal of the season against Rio Ave in qualification match for Europa league. His next goal came on 26 October against Roma in 3–3 draw, his third and last goal of the season was on 20 December against Sassuolo as Milan pulled an away 2–1 victory. In total, he scored three goals and five assists of the season. On 15 October 2021, Saelemaekers extended his contract until 30 June 2026 with a raise in salary. On 4 December, he scored his first goal of this season against

Salernitana Unione Sportiva Salernitana 1919 is an Italian professional football club based in Salerno, Campania. The original club was founded in 1919 and has been reconstituted three times in the course of its history, most recently in 2011. The current ...

, a powerful left footed shot in eventual 2–0 win. His next goal came in a

Coppa Italia Coppa Italia () is the annual domestic cup of Italian football. The knockout competition was organized by the DDS and the Lega Calcio until the 2009–10 season and by Lega Serie A ever since. Juventus is the competition's most successf ...

match against

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

on 13 January 2022, a goal in extra time as Milan won 3–1.

Loan to Bologna

On 30 August 2023, Saelemaekers joined

on loan with an option to buy. At Bologna, Saelemaekers quickly established himself as an important player, fitting perfectly into the manager

Thiago Motta Thiago Motta (; ; born 28 August 1982) is a professional Association football, football manager and former player who was most recently the head coach of club Juventus FC, Juventus. A Midfielder#Defensive midfielder, defensive midfielder, Mott ...

's so-called 2–7–2 system. Due to the presence of

Riccardo Orsolini Riccardo Orsolini (born 24 January 1997) is an Italian professional footballer who plays as a winger for club Bologna and the Italy national team. Club career Early career Orsolini is a product of Ascoli's youth academy. He made his debut ...

on the right side as an "inverted" left-footed right winger, right-footed Saelemaekers began to play on the left in the similar role, a position he sometimes played in at Milan in absence of regular starter

Rafael Leão Rafael Alexandre da Conceição Leão (; born 10 June 1999) is a Portuguese professional association football, footballer who plays as a left winger for Serie A club Inter Milan, AC Milan and the Portugal national football team, Portugal nationa ...

. Saelemaekers was about to join Bologna on a full transfer from Milan before Vincenzo Italiano took over the departing Thiago Motta as a manager at the end of the season and declined to spend €10 million on the player, focusing on other transfer targets. While initially on the summer transfer market due to oversaturation of attacking players on both wings, Saelemaekers returned to AC Milan's training camp in July, played in all the pre-season friendlies, and was even a surprise starter for the opening 2024–25 Serie A game versus

Torino Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

, playing as a

left back In the sport of association football, a defender is an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categ ...

in place of Theo Hernandez, who later came on in the second half for

, with Saelemaekers moving onto the right side of a back-four.

Loan to Roma

On 30 August 2024, he joined fellow Serie A club

Roma Roma or ROMA may refer to: People, characters, figures, names * Roma or Romani people, an ethnic group living mostly in Europe and the Americas. * Roma called Roy, ancient Egyptian High Priest of Amun * Roma (footballer, born 1979), born ''Paul ...

, on loan for the 2024–25 season.

International career

Saelemaekers debuted with the Belgium national team in a 1–1 friendly draw with

Ivory Coast Ivory Coast, also known as Côte d'Ivoire and officially the Republic of Côte d'Ivoire, is a country on the southern coast of West Africa. Its capital city of Yamoussoukro is located in the centre of the country, while its largest List of ci ...

on 8 October 2020. In September 2021, he scored his first goal in a

2022 FIFA World Cup qualification The 2022 FIFA World Cup qualification was the FIFA World Cup qualification, qualifying process which decided the 31 teams that would join hosts Qatar national football team, Qatar, who received an automatic spot, at the 2022 FIFA World Cup. Par ...

against the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, also known as Czechia, and historically known as Bohemia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. The country is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the south ...

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Belgium's goal tally first. Score column indicates score after each Saelemaekers goal.''

Honours

AC Milan *

: 2021–22 Individual * Serie A Goal of the Month: April 2023

References

External links

Profile
at the AC Milan website *
Alexis Saelemaekers
at TBPlayers * {{DEFAULTSORT:Saelemaekers, Alexis 1999 births Living people People from Sint-Agatha-Berchem Belgian men's footballers Men's association football midfielders R.S.C. Anderlecht players AC Milan players Bologna FC 1909 players AS Roma players Belgian Pro League players Serie A players Belgium men's youth international footballers Belgium men's under-21 international footballers Belgium men's international footballers Belgian expatriate men's footballers Belgian expatriate sportspeople in Italy Expatriate men's footballers in Italy 21st-century Belgian sportsmen