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Real Madrid are upset with superagent Jorge Mendes over Manchester United’s capture of Leny Yoro from LOSC Lille this summer.
United sensationally signed the 18 year old wonderkid against the odds when he looked to have his heart set on joining the Spanish giants.
Their offer of €62 million was way in excess of Real’s reported willingness to pay €40, and Lille applied pressure to the Frenchman to accept it, which he ultimately did.
This left the Merengues short in the centre back department and they are once again looking for options, still lamenting the loss of their number one target.
According to AS, “The big point of difference was the salary: United gave him a net salary of nine million per season [around £145,000 per week], a “total anomaly” for an 18-year-old kid who had barely made it in elite football, as they were suggesting in Madrid itself.
“With great projection, yes, but without enough experience to deserve that salary.
“That cleared any option of him going to Madrid and, in the process, created tension between the white club and his agent, the Portuguese Jorge Mendes, whose relations with Madrid are not going through the best moment.”
It should be said that this claim of a €9 million a year salary is not backed up by capology.com, which records Yoro’s salary at United as £115,000 per week. This is only €7.1 million a year. It is below the figure of, say Victor Lindelof and at Real, it would put his as the 18th highest salary – hardly a massive amount by their standards.
The fact is that Real got caught with their pants down. In recent years they have been successful in using their Harlem Globetrotter status to persuade players simply to run their contracts down to wait for them, and/or to simply refuse to join anyone else.
They have done this with the likes of David Alaba, Antonio Rüdiger, Aurélien Tchouameni and of course Kylian Mbappé. Their arrogance in regard to Yoro cost them, so poor Jorge Mendes is getting the blame.
Unfortunately for United, a metatarsal injury sustained in pre-season left Yoro on crutches before he could even kick a ball in a competitive game. But the fact that the Spanish are still pouting about losing him speaks volumes about why United fans should be excited to finally see him in action.
He has set himself the Arsenal match on December 3rd as his comeback date.
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