The story regarding the cooling break saga involving Theo Hernandez and Rafael Leao continues to spill over, and a report has even questioned how long they will be at AC Milan for.
La Gazzetta dello Sport begin by asking the question: ‘Now what will happen?’. Theo and Leao are pillars of Milan and there is no doubt about it, the club are aware of it, they have been here since 2019 and remain top players in their respective roles.
However, if we look a little deeper, there are some question marks. Theo has an agreement with the Rossoneri that expires in June 2026 and Zlatan Ibrahimovic claimed a couple of weeks ago that fans should not be worried about a potential contract extension.
“For their renewal, everything is under control. They know what we want, we know what they want. It can be resolved in a minute or maybe a little more, but there is no rush,” he said, when asked about Theo and also Mike Maignan.
Both the full-back and the goalkeeper are starters for France and have the eyes of many top clubs on them, and this will especially be the case if they have a year left on their contract. It is also obvious that both expect a pay rise.
Is Milan still their priority? From Maignan in the summer there were positive signals in this sense, from Theo less so. It is no mystery that in June he had a thought about saying goodbye, when he said at the European Championship: “Will I stay at Milan? We’ll see later.”
Theo’s somewhat cryptic statement came at a time when it seemed like Bayern Munich in particular were interested. Alphonso Davies was expected to head to Real Madrid, with the Frenchman ending up in Bavaria, but the former never happened and therefore neither did the latter.
Hernandez thus remained at Milan, just like Rafael Leao, who has been courted in vain by Barcelona in recent days. The Portuguese signed a contract extension just over a year ago, moving the expiry date to 2028 and significantly raising his salary, which has become the highest in the entire squad.
At the same time, the agreement included a release clause of €175m to be paid in three instalments (one per year). It is a very high figure, which for now is considered too high by all of Leao’s admirers, given that no club has shown interest in paying it.
Rafa, who will soon become the father of twins, is tied to the city of Milano and to AC Milan as a club, but in the future never say never.
Where are those big mind kids who was chanting for days “we dont have enough italians,we dont fulfill regulations”,we didnt sign any but we loaned out pobega and there is no problem ,you see now that you can register under 21 players,you dont know a sh*t about rules
How is that related to the article? Or was this just one of those “Look! A squirrel!” 😀
* “Look! A squirrel!” -type of things
Theo tried to pimp himself out over the summer, inviting other teams to make an offer for him and take him away from Milan.
Who made an offer for Theo?
🎵”Nobody”🎵(Keith Sweat voice).
Supposedly, the best left back in the world, in an official press conference opens the door and putting other teams on notice that he can be swayed away from Milan and no one makes an offer.
Real Madrid wanted Davies, and after they didn’t get him, they just extended Mendy, the same LB they bought for 50m in the same summer they got rid of Theo for 20m. They won 2 UCL’s with Mendy as a starter. Obviously they have zero interest in bringing Theo back.
What does that say about how other teams view Theo?
Maybe that reality check has him in his feelings.
Well… When a player basically makes a public “Make me an offer I can’t refuse” -statement just before the EUROs and no one comes knocking on the door… That might do some mental damage for sure. And who’s to blame here? (And Bart, don’t come saying it’s the management as they didn’t make Theo say that to the press). 🙂
Haha I guess I’m the official lawyer of Théo, fair enough, thanks for the shootout 😉
I understand your opinion, lack of motivation, that’s ugly to witness but I don’t think Théo dances without music, there is a reason.
Obviously he wants a raise. It’s understandable since he’s not even in the top 5 for top salaries in the team despite everything he accomplished over the past four or five years. He now wants to be paid according to his status. It seems like it’s not happening and on top of that, Zlatan goes public saying “Théo is happy and is staying”. So I can understand that he didn’t like that. You have to do what you can to keep your best players, especially world class players. The fact that he’s not a leader is irrelevant, most star players are no leaders but they still have an impact during the game. Théo also saw his brother suffering a major injury. I can understand that he wants to protect himself. Man just look at the NFL, it’s common practice to skip preseason camp or refuse to play when players want a better contract and nobody is shocked (see Brandon Aiyuk) because it’s a business. The management thinks they have leverage because he’s under contract. Well he’s fighting now.
How are you living in Milan and watching NFL? (Redskins? Really?)
NFL comparisons fail here. Completely different rules.
Can’t tell what the logo on the helmet is.
I have been living in the US, I was reporter in college football. The logo is USC 😉
I don’t think it’s irrelevant on this topic. Players are under contract. When they perform better than what they’re paid and the contract is close to the end, they ask for a raise or to be traded. Zlatan said “Théo is happy and will stay”, which sounds like “he’s not going anywhere and is happy with his contract”. It’s obviously not the case. Maybe Théo will retire in the middle of a game like Antonio Brown haha
Where’s Pete Carrol when you need him to Trojan this thing…
An Antonio Brown stunt? Man that’s harsh on Theo lmao
Very true it was quite messy but we have had enough of it already.
Let us judge them both upon their return from international duty.
Leao, in particular, should give his 100% and not wander aimlessly across the pitch for a good 60 minutes per match.