Vinicius Junior open to temporary Saudi Arabia move

The chess match of desires in Vinicius Junior’s future continues to be played out bit by bit, with the most recent move being the Brazilian revealing his contract demands to Real Madrid. However he would reportedly be open to a rather surprising solution to the predicted blockage in contract talks.

As he has declared on numerous occasions, Vinicius is happy at Real Madrid and keen to stay at the club. That is also the intention of Real Madrid, but not at any price. The 24-year-old has told Real Madrid that he wants to earn €20-25m per season, a significant increase on his current €15m salary, which is the same amount as Kylian Mbappe earns.

However President Florentino Perez does not want to break the salary structure at the club, knowing that a wage hike for Vinicius means increases for Mbappe and likely Jude Bellingham too. Therefore the two sides find themselves at something of a roadblock, while Saudi Arabia throw around figures of €300-400m in transfer fee, and a €1b contract for Vinicius over five years.

Recently it was reported that Vinicius would prefer a shorter contract in the Middle East, and Sport say that it could be part of a strange sounding proposal. Vinicius is open to signing a two to three-year deal in Saudi Arabia, to then return to Real Madrid, having earned the money he wants. It is noted that this proposal is unlikely to convince the Saudi side, who may not consider it value for money, and neither Real Madrid.

Certainly the passage of events, the consistent reports of Saudi interest and some of the criticisms of Vinicius behaviour, suggest that while Vinicius may be using their offer as leverage, there is an openness to the idea of selling Vinicius for an exorbitant fee. Real Madrid are not short of attacking options in his position, and the noise surrounding him has at times frustrated his colleagues.