Despite interest from PSG and Premier League giants, Milan want to extend Rafael Leao’s contract and will soon sit down with his agent Jorge Mendes to negotiate a new deal, reports in Italy claim.
Leao is Milan’s best scorer this season with 13 goals across all competitions, 10 in Serie A. His current deal runs out in 2024, but the Rossoneri are now willing to extend his stay at San Siro.
According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, potential new owners Investcorp want to make him the main star for the club’s future and the player’s agent Jorge Mendes will meet directors Paolo Maldini and Ricky Massara soon.
Both Maldini and Massara are expected to remain at the club despite the imminent takeover and the Rossoneri are ready to triple Leao’s salary offering a new €4.5m-a-year deal until 2026.
Leao wants to extend with the Rossoneri, but an agreement with his club also depends on the legal dispute between him and Sporting CP. In January, Leao was ordered to pay €16.5m for cancelling his contract and joining Lille as a free agent in 2018. The Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned the ruling in February, but it’s still unclear whether Leao owes money to his former club.
As per La Gazzetta dello Sport, PSG are strongly interested in the Portugal international and are ready to offer €70m for the 22-year-old, but Milan consider him ‘untouchable.’ Both Gazzetta and Tuttosport claim that Premier League giants are also interested in Leao, but Milan’s stance won’t change.
One reason why Milan don’t want to sell Leao now is that Lille have a 15% sell-on clause to any future sale and the Serie A giants hope his transfer value will increase over the next few seasons.
Leao diamante d'Arabia: Investcorp vuole blindarlo e metterlo al centro del nuovo #Milan https://t.co/6I8qxlgRTx
— La Gazzetta dello Sport (@Gazzetta_it) May 2, 2022
Hopefully he stays and the vultures from PSG and the EPL stay away as we can’t afford to see more quality leave the Serie A.
If next season Milan has a formidable right wing and reliable (as in healthy) striker, Leao could explode even bigger. I think the reason why Liverpool trident attack is so fearsome is because each of its prongs is as dangerous as the others. Hopefully Milan will have the same kind of attack.
Unfortunately, if he doesn’t sign, it might probably mean that we have to sell him. Sure we can have 2 more seasons of Leao with him running the contract down, but that would also mean that he won’t be as focused and might just play it safe on the last season, like our ex presidente.
I think throw money at him short term but include 2 clauses: 15% future sale Percentage and a release clause of 80m+. Milan need to start being smarter with contracts because we can’t keep losing talent for pennies.
@Chris2: I think future sale percentage clause isn’t between the club and players, but rather between seller and buyer. And if we’re to attach release clause, I think 80M is pennies, maybe double that, as release clause is meant for deterrence anyway and if he does flourish next season too, 160M is going to be cheap in hindsight.
@Bunga2, I think its clear Chris meant the resale and release clauses to be between buyer and seller. 80m is not pennies for a player that plays no defense. Liverpool’s trident is fearsome not only because all three are dangerous but also because all three press like their lives depend on it. That’s why it’s called gegenpressing. You couldn’t pay Leao to press properly, nevermind track back. The irony is I think gegenpressing is ideally the way Pioli would like to play. No, 80m is just fine for a player that is never going to compare to Mane. I say sell him now before PSG realizes this. I also think 4.5m is not going to be enough. If the Sporting situation isn’t a clue, this guy has been looking at dollars for a while. Take that 70m now and add it to the 100m coming from Investcorp and we can change our entire attacking trident for the better. Maybe even actually get them close to Liverpool’s…
Knowing Mendes, he will wait until after the takeover is finalized to try to negotiate a better deal for Leao.
@Vero: I understand your points and I think part of me is also in agreement tbf. However, I am a bit reluctant to overhaul the entriety of our front line, knowing that we would most probably get a new ST, RW and possibly #10 too. On one hand I dont want anymore transfer saga, but on the other hand, I am also worried if we make such a drastic change, would our players gel quickly? Not to mention that there will be World Cup at the most inconvenient time of the season too.
Lets see how this unfolds.