Real Madrid have been rumored to be offering almost anyone to Manchester United for Paul Pogba, and left winger Vinicius Junior is the latest star player to be mentioned.
Paul Pogba may not be the wisest option for Real Madrid due to his prohibitive cost, and the need to acquire him has significantly decreased now that Fede Valverde has broken out as a box-to-box midfielder alongside Casemiro. If anything, signing a young holding midfielder to relieve the massive pressure on Casemiro would be a better usage of funds.
And Real will have to be careful how much money they spend on players other than Kylian Mbappe, since their clear top target could cost more than 300 million euros. That’s around the amount of money Real spent for the entire 2020 summer transfer window, which included Eden Hazard. Pogba alone could cost as much as Hazard did despite being a center midfielder in worse form than the former Chelsea star.
Still, Pogba is a game-changing talent with plenty of experience and all-around ability. He’s also high on Zinedine Zidane’s wishlist, so Florentino Perez will exhaust all reasonable options to acquire him from United, who are desperate to hold onto their only superstar player.
According to a report from El Desmarque’s Jorge Santos, Real Madrid are considering sending 50 million euros and Vinicius Junior to United for Pogba. The paper has already linked them with swap deals involving the likes of James Rodriguez and Mariano Diaz, and other reports have linked players like Isco and Toni Kroos.
A Kroos/Pogba swap seems out of the cards now that Kroos is clearly in much better form than Pogba, and a Vinicius/Pogba swap would somehow be even more ridiculous. I don’t buy that Perez is in any way interested trading Vinicius, who can be one of the best wingers in world football in a handful of years, for Pogba. As great as Pogba is, he doesn’t have as many years left at the top level, and Real already have plenty of veteran talent in midfield. If anything, they need to get younger and sign players more in the Valverde and Martin Odegaard range than in the Pogba/Kroos/Isco/Modric/James age range.
Vinicius could be used as a trade chip to lower Kylian Mbappe’s price, and that’s far more valuable to Real than lowering Pogba’s asking price. On no level does this deal make sense for Real, and surely Vinicius would hate to be moved to United. That would be a huge step down for him.
Real won’t trade Vinicius unless it’s for Mbappe. At least, that’s how I hope Perez sees things. Again, Pogba is a great player and worth acquiring at the right price, and a player swap could be ideal for both Los Blancos and the Red Devils. But Vinicius? This wouldn’t make sense.