Newcastle have been offered the chance to sign Rafael Leao from AC Milan

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Newcastle United are among several clubs who have been offered the chance to sign AC Milan’s Rafael Leao according to reports in Italy.

Leao has a £130m release clause in his contract

A journalist in Italy gave an update on Rafael Leao‘s situation at AC Milan to Italian radio show “1 Football Club”, transcribed by Calcionapoli24, in which he said of the winger: “The Portuguese agent offered the boy to various top European clubs, including, PSG, Newcastle, (Manchester) United and City. The starting price will be €90 million [£79m], as the club will not want to be caught unprepared.”

It wasn’t so long ago that Arsenal and Tottenham were both said to be interested in Leao, who reportedly has a release clause of £130m, so if Newcastle have been offered him for £79m, it has to be worth looking into.

The Portugal winger was described by his Milan teammate, Fikayo Tomori as ‘electric’ in an interview with The Athletic. A sentiment echoed by former Chelsea star, Joe Cole when covering a Portugal World Cup game for ITV via HITC, saying: “He is a real firework. He can come on, he can dribble, he scores goals, he is the most exciting young talent in Portuguese football.”

While only 23, Leao has bags of experience having won the Serie A championship and Portuguese League cup as well as two player of the year accolades.

This season he has amassed nine goals and 10 assists in 32 appearances in all competitions, with three of those assists and one goal coming in seven Champions League outings.

A step too far, too soon

He’s certainly another player who ticks a lot of boxes for Newcastle, but realistically, he may just be out of reach for us this summer. If we were to finish in a Champions League spot, that might change, but given the other teams he’s supposedly been offered to already being established Champions League sides, I’d say our chances are slim.

It is also a stretch financially. While £79m may be doable for Newcastle on paper, it’s a big outlay on one player when the aim is to potentially bring in five players, and that’s before we get into the wages he’d likely demand. Unfortunately, I think this one will be a non-starter for us.