Real Madrid will pay €72 million for growth – Sport – Kommersant

Real Madrid have announced the signing of 16-year-old Brazilian striker Andrik. He could cost Real Madrid a total of €72m. Never before has a player of his age been paid so much. However, Andrik will be able to join his new team only in the summer of 2024. The rules of the International Football Federation (FIFA) prohibit players under the age of 18, unless there are some exceptional circumstances, to move to foreign clubs. Until the age of eighteen, Andrik will continue to play for Palmeiras.

Real Madrid and Palmeiras today announced the closing of a deal for the transfer of 16-year-old striker of the Brazilian team Andrik to the Madrid club. It is reported that the cost of the child prodigy will be a total of €72 million. Andrik’s contract with Palmeiras indicates the cost of his unconditional buyout – €60 million. Real Madrid, however, agreed that they will pay €35 million now, another €25 million may make up bonuses for the player’s results. In addition, Madrid will spend €12 million on paying taxes. We add that the Brazilian clubs only once sold a player for a larger amount than in the case of Andrik. We are talking about the transfer of Neymar in 2013 from Santos to Barcelona. Then he cost the Catalans about €88 million.

The contract was signed for three years with the possibility of extension for another three seasons.

In the first three years, Andrik’s salary will be quite modest – about € 2 million per year. But his real income could be much higher if, of course, he plays for Real Madrid.

Madrid are vitally interested in the media promotion of their new striker. After all, according to the agreement, they will own 50% of the image rights to the football player.

An agreement on the transfer of Andrik was reached back in November, but the parties were in no hurry to announce it, waiting for FIFA to give approval for the deal. According to the rules, the transitions of young football players are controlled especially carefully. For example, before reaching the age of 18, they cannot become the object of an international transfer (with the exception of special cases, for example, the impossibility for the player to stay in his homeland). It is also precisely the requirement of FIFA that the contract with Andrik was signed for only three years – longer agreements with players under the age of 18 are not allowed.

Endrik has been playing for Palmeiras since the age of 11. It is noteworthy that his father tried to attach his son to both São Paulo and Santos (Andric’s family lived in the capital of Brazil, Brasilia), but was refused. In Palmeiras, the boy’s potential was seen. And so that he would not be lonely, they gave his father a job at the club as a cleaner. Andrik signed his first professional contract only in July. By that time, he had already become the subject of interest for top European teams (in addition to Real Madrid, PSG and Barcelona claimed the forward), as he attracted attention in the Sao Paulo Youth Cup, where he scored seven goals in seven games (since then he managed to score goals in games for the main team). AS sources claim that the offers of the Parisians and Catalans were somewhat more profitable than Madrid, but Endrik chose Real Madrid simply because he wanted to play in Madrid.

Thus, Endrik, if all 72 million are paid for him, will fall into the top 40 most expensive players in history, settling at the end of the fourth ten in the ranking, somewhere next to such a monster as Romelu Lukaku.

Well, in the list of transfers of young, under 17, players, he is undoubtedly the first. So far, that has been English midfielder Jude Bellingham. In 2020, when he was 17 years old, Borussia Dortmund paid Birmingham €25 million for him.

Arnold Kabanov