Although Arsenal had high hopes and were pushing hard to sign him, Vinicius Junior and Real Madrid have come to what was honestly the only reasonable and logical conclusion. As The Athletic's David Ornstein and multiple reliable outlets in Brazil and Spain have reported, Real Madrid have reached an agreement with Vini Jr. on a contract extension, keeping the club icon in the Spanish capital for what will be six more years at an increased salary of 24 million euros.
Real Madrid reportedly tried to bump up Vinicius's salary to 20 and 22 million euro per season, but Vinicius finally settled on a deal with 24 million euros per year that will pay him a more robust loyalty bonus than last time. Vinicius Jr. won't quite get the 30 million euros per season he was looking for to pay him just under Kylian Mbappe's eye watering 34 million euros per season, nor will he get as fat of a bonus - but that's also because Mbappe joined as a free agent and thus gets a big bonus on those grounds.
Still, the new deal is a win for Vinicius Jr., who knew that this contract would be his last massive one as a 26 year old, and the new deal will keep the Brazilian superstar at the Santiago Bernabeu through his entire prime years.
Vinicius Jr. showed his true colors to Real Madrid
Again, it was the only logical conclusion, as Real Madrid believed in Vinicius Jr. from Day One when he signed from Flamengo, with Florentino Perez backing him from 2019 to 2021 despite a lot of fan skepticism. And when Carlo Ancelotti arrived, Vinicius exploded on the left wing as the Cristiano Ronaldo heir and Eden Hazard replacement, becoming a prime Ballon d'Or contender just a couple of years later when he won his second Champions League title at Real Madrid in 2024.
Vinicius compromising for Real Madrid and taking a lesser offer than what a desperate Arsenal would have thrown at him as Premier League champions makes a huge statement to the Madridistas and international pundits who spent all of the 2025/26 season slagging off one of the best players in the world - a player who has scored more goals in 2026 at the club level than everyone but Bayern Munich superstar striker Harry Kane.
There was this narrative that Vinicius Junior was a problem in the locker room, disloyal to Real Madrid ,and potentially ready to betray the club. But he was not the one who killed Xabi Alonso - Florentino Perez pulled the plug because he did not have the humility to be a great Real Madrid coach and had a lot of terrible ideas how to run the organization, including the players he wanted to sign. And he was not a problem in the locker room at all, as he is friends with everyone, including Kylian Mbappe, and was seen as a unifying force. By takin this deal, Vinicius is affirming that those stories were all wrong, and that he is a true Madridistas who is here to stay.
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