Saudi Arabia ‘to make jaw-dropping, new world-record bid’ to lure Vinicius Junior away from Real Madrid
- The current world-record fee is the £200m PSG paid Barcelona for Neymar
- But that record could be smashed this summer with Saudi eyeing Vinicius Junior
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Real Madrid are reportedly bracing themselves for an eye-watering, world-record bid for Vinicius Junior.
The current world-record transfer fee is the £200 million that Paris St-Germain paid Barcelona for Neymar in 2017.
But according to The Telegraph, Vinicius could become the world’s most expensive player this summer with Saudi Arabia preparing a huge bid for the Brazil star.
The European champions are no strangers to breaking the world-record fee themselves — having done so on five successive occasions between 2000 (Luis Figo from Barcelona) and 2013 (Gareth Bale from Tottenham).
But the boot is likely to be on the other foot with the Gulf state reportedly preparing a bid of £200m for the 24-year-old — with a series of add-ons which would inflate the overall fee to a world record.
Real Madrid may have no desire to lose Vinicius, who has helped them win three La Liga titles and two Champions Leagues. However, with Vinicius entering the final two years of his contract, such a huge bid would be hard to turn down.
Vinicius Junior has won three La Liga titles and two Champions Leagues while at Real Madrid
The current world-record fee is the £200m Paris St-Germain paid Barcelona for Neymar in 2017
Vinicius has spoken out against the racist abuse he has received since moving to Spain
A move away from Spain would offer Vinicius an escape from the horrendous racist abuse he has received during his seven years in Spain. He has spoken about the abuse bravely on a number of occasions.
‘I just want to play football but it’s hard to move forward,’ he said last March.
‘I feel less and less like playing. It never crossed my mind [to leave Spain] because if I leave Spain I give the racists exactly what they want.’ he said last year.
How Vinicius might feel at the prospect of leaving a year on from those comments remains to be seen.
While the Saudi destination for Vinicius is yet to be decided, Al-Hilal would make sense as a potential club. King Saud bin Abdulaziz renamed the club in 1958 and they are the most decorated team in the SPL. Al-Hilal have also qualified for the Club World Cup in America this summer, where they will face Real in the group stages.
