Real Madrid and Vinicius Junior are at a crossroads in their relationship, and as the clock ticks down to January when Vini can literally leave Real holding the bag by signing with Arsenal - or an even more unsightly Champions League rival - for free, the chances of the Brazilian staying at the club he became a star at decrease dramatically.
Arsenal, in particular, are driving hard after Vinicius Jr. as the new face of their attack and potentially the new face of the Premier League. They are ready to swoop in and take advantage of any official word from the Santiago Bernabeu that Real and Vini cannot come to an agreement and of the player's availabilty for transfer this summer before he were to leave for free in winter.
At the crux of the impasse is Kylian Mbappe. The Frenchman signed a free agent contract with Real Madrid in 2024 and is making 34 million euros per season in wages with a ton of extra money coming in from the bonuses and favorable image rights deal he took from the Merengues. Now, Vinicius Jr. wants to be paid closer to Mbappe than the other players in the squad, but Florentino Perez and Madrid can't do that because then they would be at serious risk of disrupting their entire wage structure in the future when other players, most prominently Jude Bellingham, ask for the same concessions.
Vinicius Jr. has to deal with football's cruelty
Free agents generally get paid a lot more in wages than most other players because of the waved transfer fee, but it is very rare that a player the acliber of Mbappe hits free agency. Thus, Mbappe signing with Real Madrid really shook up the wage structure because of the kind of money involved in his signing.
There is a deeper ill that Florentino Perez is forced to reckon with, and that is the simple fact that he forgot the lessons he should have learned from his first stint as Real Madrid president. Los Galacticos does not work. Signing Mbappe when Vinicius Jr. already was there as a left sided winger who likes to occupy the left half space does not work, and signing Mbappe to gargantuan wages and bonuses was always, always going to bite Real Madrid in the rear end when it came time to negotiate with other star players.
It is all coming home to roost for Real Madrid, and Perez only has one solution that is now forced upon him by these contract negotiations. He has to choose between Vini and Mbappe. In 2024, he could have chosen for Vini and signed players in other actual areas of need instead of splurging on a "free" Mbappe. But nothing is free, and the wages and bonuses on Mbappe that were not spent on the defensive players Carlo Ancelotti begged for cost them multiple trophies.
Now, in order to maintain financial control and raise funds to continue to develop the squad in areas other than forwards who cut inside on their right foot, Perez is forced to undo his original error by choosing against Vinicius Jr., who fell into this situation through no real fault of his own. Football is cruel.
Add us as a preferred source on Google