THEO HERNANDEZ DIDN'T GET a chance to say a proper goodbye. He spent the final game of the Serie A season on the bench, watching AC Milan beat Monza at a half-empty San Siro. Even if he had played, the thousands of fans who got up and left would've remained the story. They were protesting a season gone horribly wrong, a year in which the Rossoneri finished in a distant eighth place, and Hernandez wasn't exactly innocent in it.

But there was a feeling that that could've been it: that Milan's highest-scoring defender in Serie A would never play for the team again. Except Milan couldn't plan any kind of ceremony or official send-off. Hernandez was still under contract for one more season, and parading him out for any kind of tribute would've hurt his resale value. No one would've offered much of anything at all if Hernandez and Milan had staged such a public breakup.

So Hernandez was stuck in no man's land, neither here nor there, a Milan player but not really. The human was lost in this blinking contest. Milan's best left-back since Paolo Maldini deserved a chance to soak in the adulation of an adoring crowd one last time. Remember when he went coast to coast to score that iconic goal against Atalanta? Or the many times he combined with Rafael Leao? He scored 34 goals for Milan and made most of them look effortless. The memories were worthing revisiting.

There was just no way to commend him without losing leverage in the process. Milan couldn't celebrate Hernandez in the same way they did with Olivier Giroud, Simon Kjaer, and Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who were either leaving the club at the end of their contracts or retiring from the game altogether. Hernandez couldn't say goodbye to the fans he amazed with his daring runs, powerful shot, and general aren't-you-entertained persona.

But the game is cold and messy. It's rare for players to tie a perfect bow at the end of their terms. Maldini's last match at San Siro was marred by fans who hijacked the occasion to jeer him and attack his integrity following a public rift with Milan's then captain. Lionel Messi didn't get the opportunity to bid farewell to Barcelona at Camp Nou, either. He labored through tears during an unceremonious press conference that insulted his 21 magnificent years of service for the club. Iker Casillas suffered the same fate at Real Madrid, too, officially ending his 25-year association with the club during a nondescript TV event in the bowels of the Santiago Bernabeu. Only family and media showed up. No one from Madrid bothered to come.

The difference here is that Hernandez is still only 27 years old, far from the end of his career. Or so it would appear. A move to Saudi Arabia awaits, and it remains to be seen if he'll rest easy on his €20 million annual salary or find a way back to Europe. But he couldn't engineer a move anywhere else. Not even Atletico Madrid, the club that originally launched him, were convinced about a reunion.

Hernandez isn't the two-way player who starred in Milan's 2022 championship-winning team. He's less sure of himself, almost too scared to make a mistake, and the doubts have nerfed his game-breaking abilities. He lacks discipline and dives and picks up too many red cards for someone who's expected to be a leader at this stage of his career. Fans could forgive Hernandez in his first season with Milan — he was exploding onto the scene and yellow cards were collateral damage — but he lost a lot of credit last season when his red card against Feyenoord cost them Champions League progress. The player who jetted off on lung-bursting runs suddenly began to pantomime for fouls at the slightest touch, taking the easy way out instead of doing the work and the damage that he used to land with frightening frequency.

His decline feels like an act of self-sabotage. How could an enterprising left-back who brought such enthusiasm and skill to the position suddenly become so one-dimensional? And how could he expect Milan to give him a raise and a new contract?

The odds of a split only went up as the 2024-25 season progressed. By the time Milan played in the season finale, his time at the club was virtually up. There was no shocking development here. Everyone knew the time had come to part ways. Which makes his complete absence from the game feel punitive, that his sitting out was what he deserved for attempting to negotiate better terms or, worse yet, considering leaving next summer on a free transfer. Milan reportedly went so far as to tell Hernandez he wouldn't play a single minute if he had the temerity to pull such a stunt.

In the end, it got ugly, and it got messy. But it can't erase what he achieved in this jersey. At his height, Hernandez was the best full-back in the game. It just says a lot that that's written in the past tense.