Vinicius Jr is as polarising as football players come in 2026, but his performances at the World Cup have opened the eyes of Premier League viewers to just how good he can be.
Brazil may have been hugely underwhelming in the USA, Canada and Mexico, but Vinicius was a rare bright spot, delivering some brilliant individual moments and bagging four goals.
For Liverpool fans searching for their next superstar winger following Mohamed Salah’s exit, Vinicius’ performances will potentially not have even come onto their radar. The 25-year-old is a Real Madrid player, a Real Madrid superstar in fact, so there is no point even dreaming that a deal could be done, right?
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Well, according to Fabrizio Romano’s latest update, that may not be the case after all. As Romano shared on his YouTube channel on Monday morning, there is a possibility that Vinicius leaves Real this summer if a new contract cannot be agreed.
With his current deal running for only 12 months more, the Spanish giants reportedly want a decision one way or another, and as Liverpool address the winger market, that begs the question, if Vinicius really were available, could the Reds actually afford him?
What has actually been said about Vinicius and Real Madrid?
Vinicius is one of the superstars of world football right now, having gone from a teenaged arrival at Madrid from Brazil, to the team’s main man in the pre-Kylian Mbappe world.
Even post-Mbappe, the former Flamengo starlet is a key player, and scored 23 goals last season, also laying on 11 assists.
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But according to Romano, his importance does not mean that an exit is impossible, with both sides wanting an agreement to be reached, but so far being yet to find one.
“Brazil out means that some negotiations will have to restart, there is going to be conversations and Real Madrid will talk with the agents of Vinicius Jnr,” said the journalist.
“There will be a new round of talks between Vini and Real Madrid to try and resolve in one sense or another the situation of Vinicius Jr this summer. Real Madrid want a solution as soon as possible, in or out.”
“Florentino Perez wants Vinicius Jnr to stay, Vinicius would also like to stay at Real Madrid, but it’s a contract question, a financial question. It’s about the salary, the length of the contract, so it’s a negotiation now, it’s now about the will of both parties, it’s about reaching an agreement.
“Real Madrid don’t want to face the risk of arriving in 2027 with Vinicius still not signing a new contract and out of contract in 2027,” Romano added. “So, the conversations over Vinicius Jnr will restart quite soon to try and find a solution. Now it’s going to be time to clarify his future.”
What are Vinicius’ wages?
It is always hard to determine exactly what kind of wage any footballer is on, but Capology‘s algorithms do a good job of estimating what they could realistically be.
For Vinicius, they put his fixed wage at €480,769 per week, and €25m per year, with whopping estimated, unspecified bonuses of €721,154 per week, or €12.5m per year.
Clearly, these are huge numbers, and if Vinicius and Madrid are so far at an impasse over a new deal, it is fair to assume that the Brazil international is keen for a pay rise on his new contract.
Quite what those numbers would be are obviously unclear, but with Mbappe on an estimated €1.38m per week after bonuses, it is likely that Vinicius is looking to get much closer to this.
Is this something Liverpool can afford?
In Liverpool terms, it is difficult to know exactly the difference between what they can afford to pay a player and how far they are willing to go in order to get them through the door.
The Reds are not as rich as Real Madrid, probably not even by a long shot, but they are a very, very rich football club, and if they wanted to, maybe they could afford to pay Vinicius more than £700k per week.
The best way to judge this is by looking at Capology’s figures for what Salah – the highest earner in the club’s history – was earning before he walked away this summer.
They estimate that the Egyptian was earning £400k per week in fixed pay, with bonuses amounting to £100k per week, totalling a potential amount of £500k per week, or £26m per year. Adjusted for conversion rate from pound sterling to euros, that’s just over €30m, which is below Vinicius’ estimated €37.5m per year, but not miles away from it.
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Again, this would need to be raised in order to convince the Brazilian, but if Liverpool think he is the right man, and they think a huge deal is possible, maybe they could do it.
With Salah gone, the next highest earner is Virgil van Dijk, on an estimated £20.8m per year after bonuses, and bringing in someone like Vinicius would dwarf that, potentially causing unrest.
But Van Dijk is likely to be leaving next year, freeing up more wages for Liverpool to play with.
In short, it is hard to know the answer to the question of exactly whether the Reds could afford to sign Vinicius Jnr. There would of course be a transfer fee on top of his wages, and reports have claimed that this could still be a £100m+ deal even with one year left on his contract.
So, add that all together, and it feels likely that even if Liverpool could in theory pull this off, it does not seem probable that they will. Then again, the Reds have surprised us in the transfer market before.
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