Real Madrid forward Vinicius Jr turned down an offer from French champions Paris Saint-Germain that would have made him one of the highest paid players in world football.
The 21-year-old Brazilian, who scored the only goal in last month’s Champions League final win against Liverpool, recently confirmed his decision to sign a new contract at Los Blancos.
In an interview with Sportv, the former Flamengo player said: “I will continue at the biggest club in the world. This is just the beginning. I have many things to conquer. I hope to have many trophies at the end of my career.”
Vinicius is set to pen a five-year deal at the Bernabeu in the coming weeks, according to reports, and will earn a reported €10 million per year, which is just under €200,000 per week.
His new contract, which will likely include a €1 billion release clause, is a big increase on his previous deal with the La Liga winners.
He was, according to Goal, one of the lowest paid players at Real Madrid, earning €3.2m per season.
That sum rises to €4m when bonuses are taken into account, but that current wage means he is on a similar sum to the likes of Andriy Lunin, Jesus Vallejo and Dani Ceballos.
That will, of course, change in the coming weeks when he signs a new deal.
It also appears that a number of clubs tried their best to lure Vinicius away from Madrid with big money offers.
In fact, Ligue 1 side Paris Saint-Germain were prepared to pay offer the player a salary of €770,000 per week, according to Spanish publication Marca – a sum that equates to €40 million per year.
The report goes on to claim that Premier League trio Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United enquired about his services, but they were all turned down.
Rather incredibly, PSG were willing to give Vinicius a salary that was 12 times higher than his current contract.
Clearly the Brazilian wants to stay in Madrid. “I turned professional when I was 16 and I wasn’t fully formed yet,” the Brazilian told Sportv.
“Real represented a huge pressure, but I had the help of Benzema, Marcelo and Casemiro, who are very experienced players. I’ve been developing all the time. This season has been good, so I hope the next one will be better.”
