EXCLUSIVE: Vinicius Junior to Saudi for world-record fee
Vinicius Junior continues to be eyed by clubs in Saudi Arabia, with a world record bid anticipated.
The Real Madrid star could win a Ballon d’Or this year and clubs in the Middle East are taking an interest in him.
Football transfer news expert Duncan Castles has revealed on the Transfers Podcast, produced in conjunction with FootballTransfers, that the league has approached the Brazil international.
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They feel that he can replace Cristiano Ronaldo as the number one player over there, with a salary package that could reach one billion euros. The Portugal star has been dominant with Al-Nassr but has clearly gone above and beyond his peak.
Castles said: “The guidance I have is that Madrid believe that the move is still under consideration even though Vinicius said no in the summer window. They expect the Saudis to come back and try and convince the player to go. They know that the player isn’t entirely happy with Spanish football for very well-documented and well-understood reasons – the repeated racism.
“Look, there’s a potential that he could end up moving elsewhere, despite his importance to the Madrid team and coming to kind of the peak of his career and in the last season.
“Real Madrid are not that they’re actively trying to sell the player, it’s just they know that in terms of securing a high transfer fee, nobody is going to be able to outbid the Saudi Pro League.”
It’s thought, too, that any deal would exceed the €222 million that Paris Saint-Germain paid for Neymar several seasons ago. The Brazil international decided to transfer from Barcelona to the Qatari-backed club in 2017, where injuries let him down and he was not able to ever replicate the form he showed in Spain.
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