AC Milan will soon have to properly tackle Rafael Leao’s renewal but it will not be straightforward and should not arrive before the World Cup, a report claims.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport (via MilanNews), after the recent declarations by Paolo Maldini it was hoped that the period before the World Cup in Qatar could be the ideal time to agree a renewal, but 15 days after he spoke things do not seem to have moved forward.
In recent weeks there have been talks between the parties as Milan talked with Leao’s agent Jorge Mendes and with the lawyer who obtained the player’s power of attorney from the winger’s father, Tim Dimvula. What seems certain is the fact that the Portuguese wants to stay at Milan, where he feels comfortable.
Milan would have considerably raise the salary to around €6.5m net per season plus bonuses, even if the demand seems slightly higher. The real crux however is the €19m compensation owed to Sporting CP jointly by Leao and Lille.
There is currently a €150m release clause in Leao’s deal and it must be decided if that stays, is changed or is removed entirely, while the position of the two agents and the family in general must be established.
After Diogo Jota’s injury it seems as though Leao will play on the left for Portugal in support of Ronaldo at the World Cup, which will become a real showcase ahead of the January window, when teams like Chelsea could offer €100m+.
For the Rossoneri, however, Leao is considered unavailable at any amount and they will try to renew him until the end, while everything seems to be postponed to 2023.
Away from this article, I just want to say that it’s hard to believe that anyone can ever blame Maldini for those players who left on a free. I read comments from sections of the fans who think Maldini willingly or even willfully let some players run down their contracts and I don’t know if there’s any greater ignorance related to the subject of players who left for free. Kessie rejected a transfer to Tottenham, Donnarumma is on basically the same salary Milan offered and there’s a lot that could be pointed out which I don’t see the point of but still its disappointing. I’m not here for a debate, I’m just asking that at least some people get their facts right before blaming Maldini for those players that left.
people like to talk about stuff they know nothing about and dont even vet their info. ofc we dont get any info apart from what we read online anyway and who knows what of this is actual fact. End of the day Maldini also has bosses and needs their say so to do what he wants
The position of Maldini on this contract debacle is never in question. He tried and keeps on trying but the issues are related with players some wanted to experience other leagues or wanted salary structure that was beyond milan’s reach. Maldini is provided with certain budget to work with if it works fine if it doesn’t he pass it on to owners who ultimately takes the decision…..before cardinale every bit of financial decision was taken by elliot or gazidis this was the reason for Maldini delaying his renewal as has hands were literally tied and loosing some transfer targets…..Maldini is there to convince players about project but with limited budget….the real decisions comes from top…..so blaming Maldini is never in question. He already brought milan on world stage with his wise and shrewd Investments
Kessie refused to move to Tottenham in January, only 4 months before his contract was about to expire. Too late to try to sell a player when he is free to negotiate pre agreement with any club he wants. You suppose to sell a player before he enters the final season of his contract, not 4 months before it expires.
Donnarumma, by all reports, was offered € 8 mil by Milan. He makes €12 million at PSG
You are absolutely right, people need to get their facts right
so are you going to make the same excuse for Leao too?
oH mAlDiNi cOuLdNt fInD a tEaM tO sElL tO
only Milan cant find it everyone else can fking sell
-Milan negotiates with a player on an extention for over a year.
-Player supposedly wants to stay at Milan.
-Milan and player are nowhere close to an agreement on an extension.
-Player continues to prolong his decision.
-Milan will try to renew the player until the end.
-Player leaves on a free transfer.
It’s like we’ve seen this 3 or 4 times before, just in the last 16 months.
Yea agreed but question is why Maldini never pulls off? It has to be some financial leverage not provided by owners…he can’t pay from own pocket isn’t it….delay leads to further issues down the line….theo contract was master piece he had psg on his tail but he agreed on limited salary structure. Mamy reason can be attributed to this his young family and kick starting his career in surrounding where he settled perhaps and last Maldini charm offensive i suppose…and other players case their agents hold sway and demanded more money which is not being approved by management the high ups..
That’s a good question, Why Maldini never pull off?
How come based on the budget he works with he can’t realize that he won’t be able to resign a player and sell him instead.
Giggio was asking for 12 mil, Milan was offering 8 mil. Too big of a gap to be bridged , the player needs to be sold.
Kessie was asking for 6.5 mil, Milan was offering at most 4.5 . too big of a gap to be bridged, player needs to be sold
Don’t allow the player to enter the last year of their contracts, either renew or sell. It’s common sense.
When a player enters the last year of his contract , he has all the leverage and you are at his mercy.
The rich ManCity, this past summer sold 2 players with 1 year left on their contracts, Gabriel Jesus and Sterling.
The money they got for those 2 players they used to pay for both Haaland and Jualian Alvarez.
That’s one of the ways a club can be self sufficient and get funds for transfers. Not just by standing with your hand out asking your owners for money, like a kid asking his parents.
Milan can’t address the need of a RW and a striker for a 3rd year because every summer there are 2 new holes in the starting line up open by players leaving and Milan getting nothing in return.
Giggio, a 60-70 mil player left, Milan didnt get a cent for him and on the top they had to spend 15 mil for his replacement.
Kessie 40-50 mil player , not a cent for Milan, wasn’t replaced
Hakan 20-30 mil player, not a cent, wasn’t replaced
Romagnoli 10-20 mil player, not a cent, wasn’t replaced.
Milan could have a stronghold of Serie A, with Inter in financial problems and Juve being a mess.
Instead of Milan separating themselves from the pack , we are right in the thick of it and Maldini inexperience and naivete in contract negotiations is one of the reasons for it.
yeah for some reason they think the players will cave and sign for less that they’re asking for.. Whenever has that happend? Lost of lot of potential money with poor handling of contracts, hope they learned anything from it. As for Leao im sure he’d like to stay but he has bigger problems to think of and he needs money to resolve the sporting thing.. And Milan cant help there like an eng club can
I agree with you said, kessie case was one such where they wanted to talk but we delayed and I had the same opinion but once malidini renewal came up then we get to know why he was not putting pen to papers. That was he wanted more authority in negotiating transfers and renewal…during elliot every decision was delegated to and from singer through gazidis they were calling the shots in every decision which was time consuming and delaying renewals…..as regards to selling players before their contracts ran down that decision too layed with higher management….they should have had balls to go to extreme by making players realise they can’t hold clubs hostage send them to stands and make them watch matches from home like napoli president did with milik I suppose…..but all they wanted was to squeeze every penny and letting them run down their contracts and paying merge wages….if milan were a bit more sharp they would have still be in loss on budget terms but by agreeing to new contracts and selling single donaruma alone if he some how signed back them through arm twisting our budget would have looked brighter now as he was a home grown player and resulting in pure profit. But right now let’s see how things pan out if leao doesn’t agree my opinion would be to sell him instead of dragging the issue. The more contract runs down the more loss we will be at because no matter how good he performs players value drop as they run down their contract and putting parent club in trouble because our options are narrowing
I agree with you Poli on everything except the idea we would have singed Haaland or Alvarez. That’s a pipe dream. But everything else is 100%. The club needs to know when to hold and when to fold, and I don’t think they’ve figured that out somehow. I don’t want to lose Leao. Nobody does, but the only way we cope with not being able to keep him is selling him at max value, not lose him on a free. So Milan NEEDS to sell him in January for 120, 100, 80m whatever is offfered, because in the summer it will be 60m, or maybe Leao will even say “hey, I’m going to finish my contract and leave on a free” and then we’re screwed. There is another “article” this morning about Noa Lang’s agent flying to Milan. This may be a clue as to who they may be lining up to replace Leao. If we get 120m for Leao we can sign Lang (25M), Kiwior (30m), an a good RW (~30m), a good CF (~30M) and if you add the “normal” transfer budget of 40-50m you can include a defensive CM we’re missing at ~30m and a good backup for Theo at 10-15m. That’s literally all our problems solved. The team will overall be MUCH stronger in 2023-24. This is how you build winners. Make the hard decisions. Sell Leao in January, because if they don’t it will be a disaster.
Although I’ll add something: Technically Kessie is the only player that wasn’t “replaced”. Hakan was replaced by Diaz and later CDK, say what you will about how they’re performing but that’s the fact. Romagnoli wasn’t “replaced” because Kalulu emerged as a viable CB, but as we’re seeing injuries have shifted the landscape and Kalulu may in fact be better as our starting RB (sorry Calabria fangirls), so a CB is still on the wish list.
There should be a hard rule: The summer a player has two years left on their contract the club starts renewal negotiations the day after the end of the season (usually end of May). If in one month, i.e. the end of June, the player hasn’t renewed the club puts him on the market, in time for the opening of the the window in July, and with enough time for the club to find a replacement. Hard rule. No exceptions.
@vero rossonero
– I wasn’t saying Milan should have signed Haaland & Alvarez ( even though Alvarez was an affordable option), I was just giving an example of how by selling Gabriel Jesus & Sterling, they have the funds to buy players. Just like Napoli sold Koulibaly & Fabian to literally finance their whole Mercato this summer.
– I said they were not replaced because no player of the same quality or better came to replace them except with Maignan being an upgrade over Giggio.
Diaz was Hakan’s back up. Milan wanted Vlasic for the #10, didn’t have the funds for him, had to start Brahim out of necessity. And Yes I agree they addressed the 10 spot with CDK this summer.
Pobega is Kessie replacement because Milan didn’t have the funds to replace Kessie with same quality player
Romagnoli wasn’t replaced & we see why they wanted to buy Botman, but no funds. I love Kalulu, but he and Tomori are too similar and Milan needs a taller, more physical CB to pair them with. Plus I think Kalulu can be world class as RB, even though he is pretty good at CB.
The point is if Milan got money of those players sales, they would have had the funds to replace them with equal or better players as almost every other club does, including the richest.
Even Juventus got money to buy Vlahovic by selling Kulusevski & Bentancur to Tottenham
Khi mà lập trường của người chơi đã rõ ràng và chúng ta không có đủ tiền để đáp ứng. Phương án bán cần được đưa ra ngay lập tức. Đừng mong người chơi theo con tim như những cầu thủ ngày xưa.
It’s
Not
Gonna
Happen
It doesn’t make any sense for him personally not to leave on a free at this point.
Poli, I think you are making sense. Not even when Kessie and Donaruma have showed us.To me , if I were the owner, I will not hesitate selling him before January if I know with certainty that I can’t meet Leaos demand. We can’t keep begging players anymore.
Nếu tài chính chúng ta không đủ để giữ anh ta lại. Thì đàm phán đến 2 lần không đạt được thoả thuận. Là chúng ta đã hiểu được tương lai anh ta ở đâu rồi. Hành động thôi còn gì nữa đâu để chờ đợi.