EXCLUSIVE: Real Madrid 'tired' of Vinicius Junior 'bluff' over Saudi Pro League transfer

Suraj Radia

Updated: 27 Mar 2025 14:51 CDT
3 min read

Real Madrid, Transfers Podcast, Vinicius Junior, Vini Jr — © IMAGO

Real Madrid are ‘ready to call Vinicius Junior’s bluff’ in contract talks and would be open to selling him to the Saudi Pro League this summer, The Transfers Podcast understands.

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Saudi Arabia have long-eyed Vini Jr as their new face of the league, with Cristiano Ronaldo’s contract winding down, and they are likely to test Real’s resolve with a world record offer in excess of €200 million this summer, while also offering the Brazilian a reported salary of €1 billion over five years.

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Current ETV

Vinícius Júnior

F (CL), M (L)

Real Madrid

Vinícius Júnior

F (CL), M (L)

Real Madrid

ETV Range

€91.8M - €153M

The staggering proposal has led to a stall in negotiations over a new contract with Madrid, with the Brazilian’s current deal set to expire in 2027, and Duncan Castles told The Transfers Podcast that Real are unwilling to match the player's demands to be paid more than Kylian Mbappe.

“Madrid have got tired of Vinicius saying ‘I have this huge offer from Saudi Arabia, you're going to have to make me the best paid player in the club’,” Castles said on the latest episode of The Transfers Podcast.

“[Real] have essentially said, ‘well, look, if you've got such a good offer, you should take that offer up because we are not going to give you a better salary than Mbappe.’”

“The feedback I'm getting is that he's become a relatively difficult player to handle,” Castles added. “He’s problematic, they feel, outside the dressing room, and he doesn't always put the team's interests first.”

Perez focusing on Real Madrid transfer policy in Vinicius contract negotiations

The issue is not a financial one for Real as much as an ‘impractical’ situation, with Mbappe having received a €60m signing on fee and an ‘unprecedented’ 100 percent of his image rights.’

Castles elaborated that Real president Florentino Perez’s transfer policy is to only want players who see the club as a ‘premier destination’, having seen success in luring Mbappe, Jude Bellingham and, most recently, Trent Alexander-Arnold by insisting they make concessions or risk missing out on moving to Madrid.

STATS

Vinícius Júnior

F (CL), M (L)

Real Madrid

Vinícius Júnior

F (CL), M (L)

Real Madrid

39

Games
18

Goals
10

Assists

“They've had a number of players come to them and take salary cuts,” Castles said. “So Perez sees that they have an, almost unique, position in the transfer market where they can identify a player and say ‘we want you to come, run your contract down. We'll take you that way. We're not gonna get involved in paying an extortion at sum to your current employer’.

“Strategically, Perez's position now is ‘this works for us, this has worked for us for several years now, we want to continue this. We pick off the top talents, we invite them into the club.