The situation surrounding Rafael Leao’s contract and a possible extension continues to attract a lot of speculation as we approach the World Cup break.
Anto Vitiello begins a column for MilanNews by remarking that any fears Milan might play in the Champions League round of 16 against Spurs can be squashed as the club’s intention is to not sell Leao in January, and it is unlikely that offers worth over €120m will arrive anyway.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
If anything, the discussion can be addressed with more substance in June, but the point remains the same and at present there are two solutions to the saga surrounding the Portuguese winger’s deal.
The first solution is that Milan raise their offer by a substantial amount – probably even exceeding the €7m net per season mark because Rafa, with part of his salary, will pay back the compensation to Sporting CP – or the player will find a team willing to pay him what he wants.
The hope of Maldini and Massara and to keep the 23-year-old, and they say they are confident, but for now an agreement has not been found. The thing that must be avoided is losing him on a free in 2024, because the economic damage would be worse that Donnarumma and/or Kessie leaving.
Firstly we were supposed to see a contract renewal before the world cup, now it’s next June! He’s leaving. This talk of us returning to being elite in Europe again is just hot air. He’s leaving. This project doesn’t work.
You’re joking with the project doesn’t work thing
The club is ALWAYS bigger than any individual player. Out of the last 17 goals Milan have made, only 2 of them were scored by Leao. He can be replaced – but only if the club won’t go bankrupt before he is sold. Milan don’t have the budget to give 8-9M€ for anyone.
you either an inter fan, or you have zero idea about football. Leao is THE golden treasure that Maldini found. in football if you let a guy like this go, then you’re basically sending a clear message to every Milan fan, that your so-called project is a bunch of bulshit. there’s only 3 guys on this planet who can replace Leao! none of them Milan can afford amd Maldini knows that.
Nope. You’re the one who doesn’t understand. Players come and players go. The club remains. Milan has won UCL twice after players such as van Basten & Gullit who were at the time best in the world. They’ve won the scudetto after players such as Shevchenko, Pirlo, Inzaghi, Kaká left.
Leao isn’t even in their category yet.
Whatever please sale him before he, leave for free then
How do you assess the “economic damage” from a player leaving for free, after meeting his contractual obligations with the club. There’s no residual value on a player after his contract ends, so therefore, the club doesn’t lose a penny when a player’s contract is up. There’s no losses on the books.
I’m a huge football fan but I’m also a fan of American sports like NBA, NFL and MLB, and if I’m to be completely honest, I prefer the business model of the Americans over that of the Europeans. Players from those leagues aren’t sold, but traded. They have closed leagues, whereby the teams that compete are fixed, so there’s no promotions or demotions. They have salary caps but every team can still afford a Messi or Ronaldo type player because the cap is spread across the entire team. The reason I’m mentioning this is because I’m growing tired of this whole idea that he has to be sold if he doesn’t renew because the club will lose money if he goes for free. That’s a damn lie and they know it. If he doesn’t renew and we manage to get another scudetto and a champions league before he leaves then I’m sure that’ll be an outcome the owners and management will gladly accept.
I think the economic damage part is fairly obvious. His market value is a large amount (€70m as per Transfermarkt which factors in contract situation, but probably more than that given the €150m clause) and if he leaves for free the club miss out on that amount.
It’s not that obvious when it doesn’t show up on the accounts book.
How does it. It show up on the accounts? You’re either plus 70m from the sale or you aren’t…
You have 0 or 70m. Not exactly advanced calculus.
You’re on crack. Sell a player with one year left on their contract at say 50m (= +50m) or pay him 2m salary for his final year and let him leave on a free (= -2m).
His value is not 150m. Clause numbers can be arbitrary. In La Liga players have to have a release clause by rule and clubs there regularly set spectacular numbers for normal players to satisfy the rule, but make it impossible to lose the player. The 150m for Leao is a “if you really really really want him” number. Not impossible for a club to pay, but HIGHLY unlikely. Given he has 1.5 years left on his contract, the number is even lower. I think Leao is currently worth (again, worth is not necessarily correlated to what the club will accept) 70-90m (If his contract were expiring in 2025 I’d say more in the region of 80-100m). I think this number will drop to 50-60m in the summer. Then we’ll have to see if anyone is willing to pay that to get Leao a year early. My gut tells me no. And then Leao may even opt to see out his contract. If we don’t sell in January all bets are off. It is a bad situation.
The best thing the Americans have brought into their sports is the salary caps. That should be implemented to ALL European football leagues ASAP.
Leao and his agent may have something in their sleeves. If he goes to world Cup and shines, I bet you that his demand will jump.
Let’s sell him in January. We can get Noa Lang in January if Club bruges get eliminated.
But honestly speaking, this is not a good sign for Milan. If Leao leaves, then their is something we are not doing well. How are other clubs been able to hold their stars player down for long ?
Mane moved on from Liverpool, Lewandowski moved on from Bayern, Messi left Barca, Casemiro Real. The list goes on. Clubs remain.
Mane left Liverpool at age 30.
Lewandowski left Bayern at age 33.
Messi left Barca at age 34.
Casemiro left Madrid at age 30.
Leao is age 23.
There’s definitely a difference.
But to the original comment: “If Leao leaves, then their is something we are not doing well. How are other clubs been able to hold their stars player down for long ?”
The answer is incredibly simple: money. Milan and Serie A overall fell behind in financial resources long ago, and are only recently beginning to claw their way back towards that level again.
I was gonna say. Also, Madrid and Barcelona aren’t really solvent. Madrid manages to do OK because their expected revenues are so high they keep on getting credit facilities from banks. Barcelona on the other hand are really struggling. Outside the EPL and PSG there is only one club that is perpetually competitive against the EPL, PSG, Madrid, etc., without risking bankruptcy: Bayern Munich, probably the best run club on the planet.
How the hell is Bruges going to get eliminated before the transfer window closes? CL games are in February. All clubs have to sell players only the delusional think every player wants/needs to remain at one club their whole career.
Rafael Leao’s renewal would mean, this project is a legit and anything short of that means these whole thing is a sham and gimmick
BB is right – salary caps are required across the board, but Football is an entirely different animal to US Sports and it will be extremely difficult to implement. Nevertheless an answer needs to be found otherwise we are spiralling towards a boring European Super League, like it or not.
Anyway, at this moment, we should cash in on Leao, as he is unlikely to be loyal to us, given the amount of money he could be earning and who can blame him. For the money we can bring in 3-4 quality players to the squad and start bringing some of our youth through the system.
As others have said, we are not in a position to be offering outrageous wages and nor should we be; so until we once again become a club with financial clout, we are going to be feeding the money clubs.
True. After we finally have the new stadium in use, we can start offering players competitive salaries. But until then… It’s bye-bye if you ask for too much. Nothing we can do about it.