Cadena SER: Real Madrid consider player-plus-cash bid for Milan star after Mendes talks

Real Madrid are interested in signing Rafael Leao and have held talks with his agent Jorge Mendes, according to a report.

According to a report from Francisco Jose Delgado of Cadena SER, Leao is attracting the interest of Real Madrid ahead of the summer window and Milan would look to sell him if he does not renew between now and August.

Leao’s current contract is set to expire in June 2024 and he earns €1.4m net per season, while the request to extend is €7m. His agent is Mendes and the name of the Portuguese winger has already come up in contacts with Real Madrid.

Brahim Diaz ‘could enter the operation’ as per the journalist, which implies that he might be used as a counterpart in an offer to try and reduce the cash outlay, given the Rossoneri’s desire to sign the Spanish playmaker on a permanent deal when his latest loan expires.

Tags AC Milan Rafael Leao

28 Comments

  1. This would be a TERRIBLE move for Rafa. He would be warming the bench because he will NEVER take Vini Jr’s starting spot. Then, Rafa will be frustrated, losing form and value. But we know that agents often think of themselves and their bonuses more than of their players’ interests. I hope Rafa is smart enough to realize that of all interested clubs, going to Real which has a world-class player ahead of him in the pecking order would be the worst possible move.

    1. Which is why this is clickbait. End of story. The other thing I’d take issue with is the notion that we ought to wait until August to sell Leao if he doesn’t renew. We’ve waited long enough. If he hasn’t signed by June 30, he goes on the market July 1.

  2. There needs to be transfer restrictions put on clubs and a limit to how much a club can spend in 5 years if they are not selling players.

    It’s ridiculous to see how these greedy clubs like Chelsea, Real Madrid, Barcelona and Manchester City poaching players at other clubs they don’t even need only to have them rotting away on their bench. Smh

    1. That is why modern football is drooping in quality. When was the last time you saw a goal from a free kick ? Top 4 clubs can buy and do buy all the talent but can only play 11 players so there is so much talent out there not playing and develoiping. Just go watch a game from mid 2000′ and you will get depressed by the quality of the game, today it is just pressing and attacking from the wings….

    2. 1. Your’e describing a FInancial Fair Play? it’s already in place and it sucks.

      2. Real has a positive transfer balance for last 3 yrs. And for last 5 yrs they are around 75M in red, which is very modest.

      1. “1. Your’e describing a FInancial Fair Play? it’s already in place and it sucks.”

        The idea is good but the main issue is that some teams “bend the rules” and are untouchable by the UEFA. The same rules don’t apply to all teams.

        Better than FFP would be a Europe-wide salary caps. Teams shouldn’t be allowed to pay insane amounts of money to players. The salary caps work well in the US (NBA, NHL, MLS etc.).

        1. FFP being applied selectively is a complete mess. But even applied equally it is a bad idea, that only solidifies the current distribution of power in football. Clubs should be allowed to invest as they please. Say what you will about CFC, PSG, City, Newcastle, etc – at least those are new actors on the lndscape, which in the previous decades was COMPLETELY dominated by 3 clubs.

          No to salary cap. Salary cap is a US invention to guarantee that owners get to pocket the profit. In current European system all the profit ends up in the pocket of the players. You know – the ones that actually do the work.

          I dont even know if it can work in Europe. US leagues are closed system. How would you even decide the salary cap? If you set it at EPL levels, then it doesnt matter to us. If you set it on Serie A level, then EPL teams will simply opt out and it would make it even easier for them to attract all the best players. Sadly only way to beat them is on the market, not with anti-market regulations.

          1. ” In current European system all the profit ends up in the pocket of the players. ”

            LOL. You can’t be THAT naive, now can you? 😀 😀 😀

          2. “How would you even decide the salary cap? If you set it at EPL levels, then it doesnt matter to us.”

            Of course not. Not based on the highest spenders – that would be ridiculously stupid and would nullify the cause immediately.

          3. “If you set it on Serie A level, then EPL teams will simply opt out and it would make it even easier for them to attract all the best players.”

            Nope. Like I said, Europe-wide limits and UEFA would force everyone to participate. Otherwise no UCL/EL for them.

          4. Ok, you missedd the point, so I have to spell it out for you:

            If you set salary cap on Serie A level -> EPL opts out of Europe -> EPL offers salary that others can never match -> ALL good player migrate to EPL -> the trend of people preferring EPL over UCL accelerates -> EPL dominance reaches the point of no return.

            Do you think all the EPL fanboys (majority of fans rn) would choose gutted UCL and EL (lol) over EPL?

            Keeping EPL clubs in Europe is the only way the rest of Europe can hope to catch up.

          5. “LOL. You can’t be THAT naive, now can you?”

            Do enlighten me.

            And here’s a hit for you: agents are employees of players, so they get their cut from players’ salary, not the clubs’. For a club it maes zero difference whether they’re paying an agent or a player.

          6. “And here’s a hit for you: agents are employees of players, so they get their cut from players’ salary, not the clubs’. For a club it maes zero difference whether they’re paying an agent or a player.”

            Nope. Agents demand their own signing bonuses when their players sign the contracts. That sum will be paid by the club. Mino Raiola got 20-25M€ from ManU when Pogba joined them.

    3. Money restrictions don’t work because clever accountants will always find work arounds even before you get to the murky world of FIFA and UEFA.

      Instead we should put limits on the number of players and transfers. It’d be no different to limiting starting line ups to 11.

      My three suggestions are:

      1. Max 3 transfers per club in the summer and 1 per club in the winter;

      2. Max squad sizes of 25;

      c) Loans limited to 1 per player for a minimum of 12 months – to stop hoarding and ruining players’ careers by unsettling them.

      This would reduce the number of transfers per window, force clubs to settle, stop the big clubs from buying up all the talent (they’d still but the best talent but it’d be limited to 1 or 2 per season).

      1. Limiting transfer is not a bad idea, but I’d maybe increase the loans to 3. I think planning for the future by buying a young player not ready for the first team is just smart planning, so clubs ought to be able to do some of that. Also, there may be a number of primavera players who would benefit from a level higher than primavera, but lower than first team (i.e. Serie B), so they should have an outlet. I think 1 loan is too restrictive.

        1. The best way for young players to get experience is to actually get experience.

          Calabria never went on loan and he’s one of the few youth players to make it (even though he’s probably not the most talented).

          Loans are just a distraction. There’s too many middle managers in football. Too many people who have to act busy. Not to mention agents and the media. This creates this circus of the transfer market where players get moved around not for footballing reasons.

          Clubs just need to be forced to play players and stop overthinking and delaying. Smaller squad sizes and limited transfers would force clubs to do that.

      2. Limiting number of senior players out on loan is already being implemented Europe-wide, and it’s a fantastic idea.

        Much better than artificial limits on spending.

    4. We can’t cry about City and Chelsea now when in years past we were exactly like them. We’re simply no longer the club we once were and have to deal with it. You talk about players rotting on the bench. We literally bought Yohan Vogel who was well coveted at the time, so that other clubs didn’t get this guy and he sat him on the bench because we had Pirlo as the playmaker already. We had many notables on the bench in years past. We were the greedy club for over 20 years. We were City.

      1. Facts.
        But our fans wanna believe that under Berlusconi the best players were coming to Milan because of love, not because he was one of the richest people in the world.
        Up until the Figo transfer from Barca to RMadrid, serie A was the league that was paying the most and was spending the most. That’s why the best players in the world played in Italy.
        The 7 sisters of serie A ( Milan, Juventus, inter, Roma, Lazio, Parma, Fiorentina) at the time were competing for the best players in the world. Epl, Bundesliga Spanish league were all an afterthought.
        Richer and more powerful people became more interested in football and with Abramovich buying Chelsea the tide started turning towards EPL.
        Prior to that the flops or older players from serie A were going to EPL to finish their career, now it’s the other way around, we collect the flops and old players from EPL, Tomori, Origi, Giroud.
        Players go where the money is.
        It always been and always will be about the money

  3. You can look at the game v Napoli and say that it is a reflection of Leao’s worth with confidence. He was the Serie A MVP last season. He was very good until the World Cup break this season. He has been in a form slump (1.5 seasons counts as a clear form line).

    Diaz has always been capable of the occasional bit of high quality trickery. His value as a player is established based on whether the quality of the performance against Napoli becomes a norm rather than the outlier it has been for 2.5 seasons now.

  4. Interestingly, something that has just occurred to me is the year of birth of a number of the players that are part of the transfer discussion relating to Milan’s attack.

    1999 – Leao
    1999 – Diaz
    1999 – Scamacca
    1999 – Zaniolo

  5. Brahim are pioli request. We should take that offer if Real offer 50m euro + brahim ( value 20m euro) total 70m euro. We can use that 50m euro to buy 2 player ( leao replacement LW and striker ) . Sell origi to add more money for new striker transfer fee

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