Analysis: Is Real Madrid spending too much on Endrick Felipe?

Published

2 months ago

December 8, 2022

Neymar Junior, Rodrygo Goes, Vinicius Junior… Endrick Felipe? The Palmeiras youngster is the name on everyone’s lips as the latest wunderkind to leave Brazil, with a host of top clubs hot on his tail.

Whispers of his talent reached Europe years ago, and they have already made an impression on Brazil’s youth teams and the Palmeiras youth system. The 16-year-old striker signed his first professional contract with Palmeiras this summer, keeping him at the club until he was 19, in 2025.

He has a release clause of 60 million euros, which can be activated by a European team in 2024, when Endrick is 18 years old and legally authorized to leave Brazil. Real Madrid and Chelsea have been among the clubs strongly linked with his signing, as have Paris Saint-Germain. The French giants are reportedly pulling out of the race, according to Fichajes.net, after a joint €93m offer for Endrick (€58m) and another promising youngster, William Estevao (€35m) was rejected. of euros). They say that sports director Luis Campos will now focus his attention elsewhere.

That leaves Real Madrid in the top position, as it seems to be a given that any club that wants his services will have to pay his release clause, before persuading him to join the club no doubt on a hefty contract as well.

Are 60 million euros a reasonable price to pay? Of course, the market sets the price, and with Endrick as in-demand as he is, his fee won’t be reduced.

However, it seems remarkable that a player who has only seven senior appearances can command a fee commensurate with a world star. By the time Endrick finally moves to Europe, he will have many more appearances and possible goals to his name, but the purchase is based on his current performances.

Recalling the aforementioned star situations, the featured imports from Brazil were much more experienced when they made their moves.

Neymar was no longer a teenager when he joined Barcelona, having made 134 caps for Santos. He’s the only one of those three who will charge a higher fee than Endrick, even accounting for inflation, but he also starred in Brazil at the time.

Rodrygo also joined Santos and made 49 appearances before making a €45m move to Real Madrid as an 18-year-old. Vinicius had also played 49 times for Flamengo before his transfer for the same amount the previous year.

While those are still small sample sizes, that’s at least two senior football seasons in which scouts can confirm their initial thoughts about a player.

Endrick’s potential should not be doubted here or anywhere else. However, it’s a remarkably expensive gamble to make that he’ll stick with it. Less remembered is the example of Reinier Jesus, who joined Los Blancos for 30 million euros in 2020. He can still get there well, and he was never considered in the same talent category as Vinicius, but he had a smaller sample size to judge. . . He played just 15 times with Flamengo before making the leap.

Clearly, Real Madrid scouts feel that Endrick is the real deal and worth the risk in the long run. His price tag may even seem small if player prices continue to rise in the 2020s. However, there is no doubt that right now, Palmeiras must be the happiest of any deal, with so much development ahead of Endrick for to come.

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