Manchester City could be about to pounce for a player compared to Thierry Henry, with demand increasing for the superstar's signature.
Interest in AC Milan forward Rafael Leao is set to intensify this summer, with a number of Premier League clubs expected to be interested in landing the 24-year-old’s signature. The athletic Portuguese attacker has all the attributes to succeed in the English top flight but his name has not attracted much attention this January.
That’s partly because he penned a new five-year deal with the Italian giants in summer 2022, meaning it would take a sizable offer to lure him to England.
Another reason is that he has found goals hard to come by this season. Leao has struck just three times from the left wing in 19 Serie A appearances, although that tally doubles when you consider the Champions League and Coppa Italia.
As a prospect, though, his potential is hard to ignore. He is believed to be among the summer targets for Manchester City, but Pep Guardiola is unlikely to be alone in pursuing the player dubbed ‘the next Thierry Henry’.
Speaking on January 26, transfer journalist Ben Jacobs told FourFourTwo: “There’s nobody necessarily at this stage making offers for Leao. And part of that I think is down to the fact that he's only scored three Serie A goals this season, around about the halfway mark, whereas last season, he scored 15 in all competitions, the season before he got 10 plus goals. So maybe the stock of Leao has gone down just a little bit, in that pecking order of great strikers.
“But I would expect things to pick up and there to be demand for him come the summer. By signing a new deal, a five-year deal, in the summer of 2022, his value obviously became protected. So now Milan are in control of the situation, they don't have to sell him, he's there until 2028.
“There's a big release clause baked into that contract, so suddenly, Milan have got all the cards: they can wait if they choose, and then yardstick him against some of these other big sales and demand a massive amount of money, otherwise they'll keep him.
“Alternatively, they can cash in at the value that they want if they do want to sell because of that release clause and because of that long-term contract, and I think that's why it's gone quiet with Leao.
“That's why clubs are looking at other targets, because there's just a lot of elite strikers, so that might push him down the pecking order with some of these Premier League clubs. The price it would take to get Leao is just too high.”
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