The young Portuguese superstar Rafael Leao is one of the key players for the Italian supergiants, AC Milan. The historical club won the Scudetto last year after what has been a long wait for the San Siro faithful, and Leao played a key role in it, and it’s not surprising that the club wanted to renew him.
His current deal expires in 2024, and whilst the talks have certainly been initiated, a definitive conclusion has not yet been found. Several European giants are also monitoring the developments as he is one of the best wingers in the first division of Italian football.
The 23-year-old has played 1008 minutes in 14 matches, finding the back of the net 6 times and assisting others on 4 occasions. He is currently exceeding his xG by 1.06 and has a decent 39% shot-on-target rate out of the total shots taken. He also completed 47% of his dribbles successfully and is very pacy.
His father, Antonio Silva has already linked him with the likes of Barcelona and Real Madrid, though he highlighted that there’s time until the summer of 2024 and they will take care of everything before that.
The player feels comfortable in Milan due to cultural similarities. His father also emphasized that the club has done a lot for him and he has become one of the best in the league.
Although, it’s important to acknowledge the differences as well, as reported by various sources of Italian media. There is a difference of 2M euros per annum between the offer of AC Milan and Rafael Leao’s entourage, with the current renewal offer sitting at 5M euros per annum.
If the renewal takes an unexpected turn, the European giants can certainly capitalize. Barcelona also only have one specialist left winger in Ansu Fati, and the second one might be Abde Ezzalzouli, currently out on loan. If La Blaugrana manage to deal with their priorities till next summer, a deal might be possible in later windows in case the renewal talks between AC Milan and Rafael Leao’s entourage collapse.
