Saudi Pro League side Al Hilal have shown interest in signing AC Milan winger Rafael Leao and are reportedly not put off by the €175m release clause in his contract.
According to Portuguese newspaper O Jogo (via Milan News), Al Hilal on hot on the tail of Leao and think there is an opportunity to take him away from Europe after what has been a disappointing season.
There is certainly no suggestion that Milan are actively trying to sell Leao this summer but if his release clause were to be triggered, it is a much bigger fee than they would get if a side like Chelsea or Paris Saint-Germain started bidding on him.
The main aim of Al Hilal is to build a team capable of winning the Club World Cup, which means beating the winners of the Champions League.
The Saudi Pro League champions are expected to come forward with a massive proposal during the summer which will give Milan a real decision to make.
Leao has found himself in an unusual position where he is the player with the most worth in Milan’s team but his poor season seems to have massively limited the interest in him from European teams, but the belief is that he wants to stay.
Lol 😂😆
Take the money and ruuuuuuuuuuun!!!!!!!
And hope Leao wont decline contract(which he probably would)
Replace him with lookman
Clearly incredibly talented, but he’s one of those players where everything has to be just right for him to thrive. We’d much more likely be signing the guy that looked like he couldn’t be bothered at Everton.
I’m happy for him that he’s finally happy and creating memories, but I would be very, very dubious about his next move.
Sure, let’s sell all of our stars players, hire a mid-table coach and purchase “promising prospects” from the french leagues for less than 30M each.
Great strategy indeed, I see us winning the UCL in the next 2 to 3 years with this.
Wasn’t Leao “promising prospect” signed from the French league for 30 mil?
So we should just keep on signing “promising prospects” and selling our best players ? Who do you suggest as a Leao replacement, I’d like to know ?
Also when Leao was purchased Milan was always out of the top 4 and hasn’t won anything in a decade, so the squad was always on a building/overhaul/revamping mode. Right now we just need some key players in some key positions, we don’t need to sell.
With that kind money you can replace Leao with a lot of players.
quality over quantity, if you sell Leao you will need to target a new player in the LW/SS position and if we want to be ambitious and competitive we will need a fantastic player in that position. It has to be a player able to adapt quickly with Theo (assuming we don’t sell him) and able to produce the same numbers that Leao is producing.
There aren’t many players with this profile, let alone players we can actually get, and let’s not even talk about their wage. But if you can think of anyone, please feel free to share his name.
Any player can adapt playing with Theo. Theo was great even when he played with Rebic.
Pacy winger, especially right footed, is one of the easiest positions to replace especially when you have over 100 mil to play with. They are dime a dozen.
Lauriente from Sassuolo is just one name that you can probably get for 10-15 mil.
Last season 8 goals and 7 assists, this season 5 goals and 6 assists playing with bums at Sassuolo. You put him in front of Theo and you will get double digit goals and assists from him.
So according to you Lauriente is just as good as Leao…
LW are a dime a dozen but not that many are that high quality.
The only name from serie A that is serie A MVP proven aside from Leao is a Kvaratskhelia, and I don’t we can get him for less than 150M. Outside from serie A, the LW/SS are simply out of our reach.
Lauriente wit6 Theo and the rest of the Milan players around him will give you the same production Leao gives you. Leao isn’t that productive of a player. I don’t care who people think is better than who. The only thing that matters is production and Leao’s production is easily replaceable. He can barely score 10 goals a season in serie A and usually has around 10 assists. I gave you lauriente numbers. With better players around him he will match Leao’s production.
Kvara was signed for 10 million and was the best player in the league in his 1st season.
Dime a dozen.
For every “Kvara” that was signed for a cheap price and succeeded in his first season, there are dozen of “Antony” who were even more promising and end up being a huge flop.
Could Lauriente do what Leao did or even more if we purchase him ? Possibly but that’s not sure. He doesn’t have Theo is Sassuolo, but he also has less pressure, teams who play less defensive against them,… there are too many facts to consider.
This whole “replace a player with another” has a lof of gambling in it, it could be a huge success or a massive failure, it is very hard to predict and we always end up missing something.
But while replacing a player who hasn’t been productive for a while and who is generally a weak point of the team or injury prone is a thing, selling the best player of your team and a player who is a former serie A MVP and the most influencial player of the team to replace him with a prospect is a huge risk.
To be fair, if Leao produced more, he wouldn’t be at Milan. He’d be at City or Real.
He’s at Milan because we laud him for his “inconsistencies” and don’t ask more of him.
Pretty sure even Maldini wouldn’t have hesitated on selling Leao for that kind of money. And no one has anything to say about the matter anyway if they do come knocking on the door with that clause-money. Except Leao but he’ll probably get a record deal or two with a new clothing line and he wouldn’t say no to that.
I guess it was just me ranting about this idea/comments who agree to sell our best players.
If they are indeed going to come with the release clause (I hope they don’t) then only Leao can decide. But I hope the management makes it clear that it does not intend to sell either Leao or Theo.
No player was ever truly worth 175M as transfer fee alone (which by default means huge commission and salary as well). Only sensible reason would be if they can sell huge quantity of merchandise, which Leao can’t, especially in a Saudi club. If theoretically it was possible and Leao agreed – it’s a no brainer deal. However, if he was after money as main motivator at that point in his career he wouldn’t end up renewing his contract with us last year.
leao is 80mn not 175 mn,if someone offered man city 175mn for bernardo or grealish they would take it as well. With 175mn we could probably get a good replacement like Rodrygo for 90-100 mn,a world class centreback for 35mn and someone like zirkzee or gudmundson for the remaining 40-45mn
Take him with both hands, please!
Leao have 0 interest in saudi.. most people with a bit of common sense are like that.
Not penaldo tho, he was always a m0r0n
😀 thats right, there simply is no other explanations except that he is a greedy mf’er or a moron.
Penaldo is Leao’s idol.
And penaldo went to that league at 37, after winning everything possible IN Europe.
SMS, Kessie or some of the other players that went there in their prime would be better examples, not Penaldo. Penaldo is at the end of his career.
Could we be getting David through fonseca. Is this why Jerry was in Saudi this year to discuss leao. Is de zerbi going to Milan, apparently a team already have him baggged and it doesn’t appear to be Chelsea now. Who knows. All I know is I can’t wait for season to end and start finding out exactly what the plans are because right now we look like a bunch of headless chickens. It’s embarrassing the way we conduct business. If we’re getting rid of Pioli it needs to be someone who we can identify as a really leap in quality. A certified winner or a clear playing philosophy. Why pay the severance package at all if we’re gonna haggle over transfer fees to within a couple million
Sell him and use half of the money to buy Kvaratskhelia and the rest to buy Sesko.
Napoli won’t sell Kvaratskhelia for less than 150M
Even if 175 mil is more than enough for leao i hope he is sane enough to not go there and ruin his career, Anyone going there has no credibility as a sportsman or human being.
Let’s see if he sees himself more as a rapper or a footballer. I bet he could get an album or two out with the money from the Saudis. 🙂
😀 i doubt there is much truth to this story but if he actually would want to go there he can pretty much sod off in my book and go an play russian roulette with himself.
I read somewhere that his dad is negotiating with the Saudis… Is he working behind his son’s back or is the even the slightest chance of him interested? We’ll see. We’ll see…
tho that would be a bit of a win win situation.. we get a lot of cash and lose someone how probably is keeping the team back now
Maybe its just a rumor but if he wants to go there so be it and as someone else mentioned further up i would also prefer kvaraskhelia instead. It would be ridiculous though if he chose to ruin his career for lousy mammon.
Kvara would be the obvious one to replace Leao. Serie A proven MVP.
1. Leao is a great player, but for that fee anyone in this squad is sellable.
2. I cannot in my wildest fantasies imagine that Leao would like to move to Saudi Arabia, no matter how much they offer and it takes two to tango.
Sell him asap !! Money is not an issue for the oil man
It’s nonsense but just for fun:
SELL for 175!!!!!
Bring in Gnonto and Orsolini to duke it out with Puli (now on natural left wing) and Chuk, then spend the rest on Ederson and Amrabat.
Spend the existing budget on Gyorkeres.
Nobody is going to pay 175mil for this version of Leao. Nobody.
If we get an offer over 120mil I would let him go.
Let Leao go, keep theo and push him to Left midfielder. Milan can get another left defender to strengthen the defense.
Milan needs to revamp to be more tight behind. Revert back to twin strike too