Brazilian superstar Vinicius Junior is in talks with Real Madrid over a new contract, but he does have interest from elsewhere, TBR Football understands.
The 24-year-old is now widely recognised as one of the best footballers on the planet and narrowly missed out on last season’s Ballon d’Or.
His current deal, that he signed in 2023, runs out in just over two-years and as such Real have instigated contract talks.
During that time Vinicius has seen Kylian Mbappe arrive on the club’s largest contract, understood to be worth around £500,000-a-week.
The Brazilian is a little way off Mbappe in terms of his current wages and is believed to be seeking near parity with his French colleague and TBR Football understands that is forming part of the current talks.
Both parties are confident that a deal is close, but whilst a deal is not signed – links continue to emerge with possible moves away.
The Saudi Pro League are long-term admirers of Vinicius and we are told would pay ‘whatever is required’ to land him and sources in Spain suggest that £200million would be the level that Real would consider business.
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Saudi Pro League could compete with Chelsea for Brazilian superstar
Aside from the Pro League, TBR Football can confirm that Chelsea are huge admirers of Vinicius and would also be very interested in landing him, if the opportunity arose.
Part of Chelsea’s interest is based on the fact that a move to London is believed to appeal to Vinicius if, and when, he does move on from Madrid.
Whilst in theory Chelsea and Vinicius could be open to one day linking up – could it actually happen? No doubt Chelsea could afford any deal, but would the Premier League’s rather restrictive PSR rules prevent any sort of deal from happening? Not necessarily.
Could PSR stop Vinicius Junior from moving to the Premier League
We spoke to our Head of Football Finance and Governance Adam Williams to get the lowdown on whether a deal would be possible.
“The mantra of Chelsea’s owners seems to be ‘move fast break things’. They have only complied with Premier League PSR because of intra-company property sales, like the Stamford Bridge hotel sale that generated £76.5m for the profit and loss account,” Williams explained.
“UEFA’s rules, which the Premier League has rejected the chance to mirror pending the outcome of Manchester City’s challenge to the APT system, are tighter.
“However, the punishments are much less sever. UEFA are handing out relatively tiny fines – that’s why the likes of Aston Villa and Chelsea, are, I think, comfortable with breaching their rules.
“UEFA’s system is acting more like a competitive balance tax at the moment, like the set of rules in Major League Baseball, which Boehly and Mark Walter are familiar with through their ownership of the Dodgers.
“So if they were interested in a deal for Vinicius Junior, it’s the domestic rules they would have to worry about, not the European ones.
“I think if there is a realistic chance of a deal of transfer of this magnitude and they really wanted to make it happen, they could probably make it work.
“That would be through a combination of player sales and, potentially, more financial sleights of hands from the accounting department.
“We haven’t seen their accounts for 2023-24 yet, but the estimates are that they will post a small profit thanks to the intra-company player sales.
“In 2024-25, their massive operating losses and the – apparent – lack of intra-company sales mean that they will be well in the red again, although for PSR purposes it will be a more modest loss than previous seasons.
“Although he wouldn’t really fit their usual recruitment profile, the commercial value of a player like Vinicius Junior might tempt them to test the limits of PSR once again.
“That said, they obviously wouldn’t be able to get anywhere near what the Saudis are said to be offering him.”
