Shortly after Clement Turpin blew the full-time whistle on Wednesday night, Rafael Leao could be seen under the travelling fans leading the celebrations after progression to the quarter-finals of the Champions League was secured.
As pointed out by La Gazzetta dello Sport (via MilanNews) this morning, getting into the final eight of European club football’s top competition is worth about €20m in extra revenues for Milan, which shows just how important the income generated is in the scheme of the club’s project.
The management now know that they should have a bit more financial leeway when it comes to making decisions on the future of the squad, with the likes of Olivier Giroud and Brahim Diaz still to have their futures resolves, but the most important is Rafael Leao.
Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara are working tirelessly to find a solution in the midst of many obstacles. The will of the player shouldn’t be one of the problems as the Portuguese forward has always declared that he wants to stay at the Rossoneri, where he feels happy and where he knows he can still grow a lot.
Contacts between the parties slowed down in January due to differences of views within Leao’s entourage, but talks have restarted positively over the last week and now the directors know Leao’s requests.
The 23-year-old wants a five-year deal worth €7.5m net per season and a €2m signing bonus. The biggest knot remains the Sporting CP fine and for this reason Maldini and Massara would like to speak with Gerry Cardinale to understand how to approach it.
