Real Madrid face a genuine dilemma over the contract renewal of Brazilian star Vinicius Junior. The Spanish club are working hard to avoid setting a dangerous precedent, one that could open the door to a wave of excessive financial demands from the team's other stars. And all this while the player himself keeps rejecting the renewal offers put in front of him.
Spanish radio station Cadena SER's programme "El Larguero" revealed that Vinicius is demanding a huge renewal bonus, similar to the signing bonus Kylian Mbappe received when he joined Real Madrid, along with a larger share of his image rights. The club flatly refuse, fearing a precedent that would threaten the stability of their financial structure.
Sports analyst Marcos Lopez warned of the danger of caving to Vinicius's demands. He told the same programme: "I understand why Real Madrid refuses to grant him the renewal bonus, because it seems to me a gross injustice to the player to be asked to pay a bonus to renew his contract. If we accept this, Bellingham will come, then Valverde, then the others... and it will not end well."
Lopez pointed to Kylian Mbappe's time at Paris Saint-Germain as a stark example of what happens when clubs give in. "Look at what happened in Paris with Mbappe," he added. "Things usually do not end well when you open this door."
The timing makes it worse. Just five months remain before Vinicius can negotiate freely with any club in the world from next January. That leaves Real Madrid with a brutal choice: give in to the player's demands and create a dangerous precedent, or risk losing him for free.
According to Spanish newspaper Diario AS, the relationship between Vinicius and the club started to deteriorate the moment Mbappe arrived. The Frenchman became the team's first star overnight, pushing the Brazilian into a secondary role he was not happy with and prompting him to demand the same treatment as his new teammate.
"El Larguero" presenter Aritz Aduriz suggested Vinicius is no longer in any position to impose his conditions. "We are talking about Real Madrid's future project, and Vinicius is not as he was two years ago," he said. "The club is offering him a huge contract, but he is no longer the player he was, and I believe his level is declining."
Real Madrid, it seems, will not budge. They will refuse Vinicius a renewal bonus even if it means losing him, sending a clear message to the rest of the squad: the club will not cave to any pressure that could set a precedent and threaten their financial stability in the long term.