As Real Madrid pursue the latest Brazilian starlet to emerge, it is hard not to draw similarities between Endrick and some of their previous conquests.
Since losing out on Neymar Junior to Barcelona, Real Madrid President Florentino Perez tasked recruitment chief Juni Calafat with ensuring that it never happened again. In recent years, it has seen Rodrygo Goes, Reinier Jesus and Vinicius Junior all make big money moves to the Santiago Bernabeu.
Speaking to Caught Offside in his exclusive column, Fabrizio Romano explained that Los Blancos were now in the lead for the 16-year-old.
“Real Madrid are now leading the race to sign Endrick, pushing as reported in the last few days. Official negotiations are ongoing with Palmeiras on €60m fee, including add-ons.”
“PSG and Chelsea also remain in the race, no concrete talks with Barcelona, but Real are ahead right now. Of course, Real Madrid have a good history with signing top young talents – they were in control in the race for Vinicius a few years ago as well, and it’s proven a great move for them.”
According to Romano, Vinicius never considered moving to the Premier League instead.
“Speculation was normal as Vinicius was the best talent in South America by far, so all the clubs from England, Spain and Italy sent their scouts to monitor him. Still, he always wanted Real Madrid, he only wanted Real Madrid. There was never another option for him.”
This of course contradicts what Gerard Pique has previously said. The former Barcelona central defender revealed on Twitch last year that Vinicius had been in contact with him before he signed for Real Madrid, explaining that Vinicius thought he was going to Barcelona before Los Blancos doubled their offer.
In many ways, Vinicius’ deal resembles that of Neymar, in terms of how the saga played out. Working in Real Madrid’s favour for any Endrick negotiations will be the example they can point to of their success with Vinicius.
