Real Madrid agree €135m club-record deal for Yan Diomande and press to retain Vinícius Júnior

Real Madrid agreed a club-record fee of €135m (£115.7m) with RB Leipzig for Yan Diomande on Wednesday afternoon and are pursuing a contract extension to keep Vinícius Júnior at the club. The club also entered what sources described as positive talks with the Brazil forward and have tabled an improved offer.

The reported package for Diomande comprises an initial €125m plus €10m in add-ons, a sum that would eclipse the up-to-€134m total Madrid paid for Jude Bellingham in 2023 according to the report. Paris Saint-Germain had been involved in the weeks-long negotiation but withdrew from the race before the agreement was finalised, and Leganés are due a 5% sell-on fee from the transfer.

Diomande is 19 and moved to RB Leipzig from Leganés last summer; he featured for Côte d’Ivoire at the World Cup. He made only 10 appearances for Leganés’ first team before Leipzig purchased him for €20m (£17.4m), and he was pictured arriving at Leipzig’s pre-season training camp in Austria on Wednesday. The transfer would make him the most expensive African player in history, surpassing the £72m Arsenal spent on Nicolas Pépé in 2019.

Real Madrid have held talks with Vinícius and his representatives, Roc Nation, about a new contract on Wednesday as Arsenal monitor the situation. Arsenal are understood to be prepared to pay more than £100m for the 26-year-old, who has under a year remaining on his current deal; despite reports that he had rejected Madrid’s latest offer, he is now weighing an improved deal closer to the €30m-a-season figure reportedly requested after sources in Spain described the discussions as positive. Vinícius said on Tuesday that Madrid’s new manager, José Mourinho, wants him to be “happy, cheerful ‌and playing my football” after returning to pre-season training following the World Cup.

Arsenal have continued other transfer business while monitoring Vinícius: they have agreed a £75m deal to sign Bruno Guimarães from Newcastle and are exploring additional attacking options. Barcelona’s sporting director, Deco, held talks with Atlético Madrid on Wednesday over Julián Alvarez as part of attempts to secure the Argentina forward, a player Arsenal hope could still be persuaded to join them. The club also missed out on Morgan Rogers last month when he joined Chelsea for a British record fee of £117m and have been linked with PSG’s Bradley Barcola, who is wanted by Liverpool and valued at around £145m by the European champions.

Diomande is expected to sign a contract until 2031, and Madrid remain engaged in negotiations to finalise Vinícius’s future while Arsenal continue to prepare potential offers.