According to La Gazzetta dello Sport, January is a decisive month to determine the future of Rafael Leao who seems willing to sign a contract extension with the Rossoneri.
The Portuguese star is back in Milanello to prepare for the second part of the season and club directors will meet his agents in the coming weeks to submit their offer to extend Leao’s stay at San Siro beyond 2024.
According to Gazzetta, Milan will offer a new €6-6.5m a year deal which could even rise to €7m. Milan are not willing to put more money on the table.
Leao’s current salary is €1.5m per season and even if the potential new deal would not allow solving his problems with Sporting CP entirely, paying a fine of circa €19m, the 23-year-old seems determined to extend his contract.
Leao is happy at the club and grateful to the Rossoneri for his development over the last few years. For this reason, he seems determined to commit his future to the club and January will be a crucial month, according to Gazzetta.
Milan have already decided that they won’t sell their star during the winter transfer window, even if Leao doesn’t pen a new deal in January. Likewise, his contract extension next month won’t guarantee his stay over the summer as the Rossoneri would sell the striker for a big-money offer in July.
Leao has a €150m clause included in his contract, but it is still unclear whether it would remain the same in the new deal offered by the defending Serie A champions.
Keep him at all costs
Try everything within your means to keep him, God knows when we can have another potential champion in the team, but if all fails, then stop setting new deadlines and sell before time runs out. We can’t miss out on the money.
If he signs an extension, it needs to be soon. Either way I think the lad thinks he’s too big for Milan already. He’ll be in England by September and we’ll likely be left holding some cast-off like Ziyech as our big signing.
I think that the board really should do everything possible to keep him at Milan, but in fact, if there is no contract renewal until the next summer mercato, then it will in fact be imperative to negotiate him for the maximum possible value.