Rafael Leao is still attracting the interest of Barcelona and he would gladly accept a move to join them next summer, a report has claimed.
As SPORT recall, Leao has been liked by Barça for some time as the links first surfaced last summer, when they ran into a wall in their pursuit of Nico Williams. The Catalan club consider him a difference-making winger, and president Joan Laporta ‘maintains a preference’ for the Portuguese.
The president dreams of making a big-name signing for when the new Camp Nou refurbishment is finished and the option of Leao is seen as exactly that. However, Leao renewed his contract with Milan until 2028 with a release clause of €175m, so they have all the leverage.
Needless to say, Barça would never consider paying such an amount, but an amount around €80-90m would make the Milan management reflect. Leao is fully amortised, so at this point it would virtually be pure profit.
Barcelona have had financial difficulties but are working with confidence that the economic and FFP situation will be much better next summer. Several agreements are being worked on and the one that has been done with Nike will give a huge boost to the club’s accounts when it is signed.
The report adds that Leao ‘would be delighted to wear the Barça shirt’ and after almost six years in Italy he ‘would say yes with his eyes closed’ to an offer from them. However, to date he has preferred not to give too much credence to the rumours, aware of the complexity of a hypothetical negotiation.
He is happy at Milan for now, but he has had clashes with Paulo Fonseca, which have increased the temptation to change scenery. The ‘Jorge Mendes factor’ must also be taken into account: the agent’s links with Barça are undoubtedly a point that would play in favour of the Blaugrana.
If we do sell him that would be a hefty capital injection. But I don’t trust this management one bit with that money.
4 example, sell leao switch to 343, LM would benefit theo a lot, and sign a counterpart to pulisic. Lookman comes 2 mind. Maybe even that flop Dvaid on free.
Add a quality cb and dm and we’re golden.
Sounds very fifa manger 🧐
With 90m we can barley have Lookman and an ‘ok’ CB.
Lookman would cost at least 60m,
Scalvini would cost 50m,
Kiwior 40m,
Gudmundsson 45m,
anyway the point is – we can’t sell Leao at this price and get a good replacement and a cb/dm/st at for this money
Not in his last year of contract. Which just so happens is 2026. And even if he agrees to a plus 1 option they have, he still won’t be more than 50-55M.
Scalvini is a no, no.
Kiwior maybe 20M.
Gudmundson is a no,no.
Yes, we can get whatever we want. With a competent sporting director. Besides nobody is saying leao money would finance the whole mercato. One would assume we have 40-50M to spend anyway….
We can sell him yes, but then the management will bring in some mediocre cheap and free players.
sold leao for 90M and get Osimhen for 60-65
If we sell Leão like, frankly, some very silly people advocate, our cheap management will get a Joe Nobody to replace him for a cheap fee, and our offensive quality will drop precipitously. Apparently that’s what those silly kids want to happen. They will talk about all the great names we’d be getting… but they forget that it’s not how our management operates. We have a cap of at most 25 M for new signings, and we have as managers the same amateurs who shipped out Kalulu for 13 M in order to get Emerson Royal for 15 M. Can we trust them that the funds obtained by selling Leão would be well spent in order to acquire a suitable replacement that would add about the same number of seasonal goals and assists that Rafa adds?
Don’t forget, also, that the deadline for RedBird to pay back the vendor’s loan from Elliott is approaching. While the money obtained from the sale of Tonali was indeed used to hire new players (not very efficiently, though), it is by no means guaranteed that future big-name sale profits will be used the same way. These profits could be, instead, used to pay back the loan.
If those silly kids want to weaken Milan, they should continue to advocate for getting rid of LAAAAAAZY Rafa. They will be once more demonstrating how short-sighed they are. And of course they will be saying that the reason I’m posting this OBVIOUS truth is that I write love letters to Leão. Yeah, right.