MARCH: Real Madrid will make an offer for Endrick

Endrick Felipe turned 16 in July and will not be able to start playing in Europe until the 2024/25 season. It does not matter, however. MARCH in the main topic of Friday’s cover reports that its future will be decided in the coming weeks, and the race to acquire it has already started and has taken a blush recently. Three weeks ago, the attacker made his debut for the senior team Palmeiras, who are confidently heading for the championship, and this week in his fourth appearance, he scored his first senior goal against Athletico Paranaense, who will play in the Copa Libertadores final this weekend.

The newspaper reports that there has been a rush in the case of the Brazilian, no matter how strange it sounds when we talk about a 16-year-old. In today’s football, however, everything happens faster and there is no longer such a thing as waiting for talent to explode. Celebrities become stars at the age of 18 and at this stage everything is expected from players such as Haaland, Rodrygo and Vinícius. Of course, this is not always possible and many gems are lost on this difficult path.

MARCH underlines that in the case of Endrick there is also the statement “if we don’t buy it, someone else will do it”. In this case there is no exception and the main rival Los Blancos Paris Saint-Germain is set to be, which was about to make an initial bid of € 20 million. Palmeiras is expected to earn at least EUR 40 million. Will there be a reaction from Real Madrid? The journal replies that it was immediate.

The Kings have been scrutinizing all the plots of this operation since last season, when Endrick’s parents arrived in Madrid, visiting Santiago Bernabéu and the Valdebebas facility. After that visit, the club sent its people to Brazil twice to take a personal look at the teenager’s situation and surroundings.

The first reports were to be positive. So much so that a clear and direct message came from above: “If we believe that he will be what he thinks he will be, then he must be won over.” MARCH announces that Real Madrid is already working on it. The club waited calmly for the striker’s first tests in senior football, which he passed with very good grades. The newspaper reports that knowing that the player’s parents liked what they saw in Madrid, Real will make Palmeiras an offer for Endrick in the coming days to ensure his arrival in the Spanish capital. This could not happen soonest in the summer of 2024, of course.

An extract from Palmeiras’s last match with Endrick’s goal [od 1:48].

The player himself also analyzes his future. The newspaper points out that Endrick, his family, and the agency that represents him and that also runs Vinícius’ interests, have a clear basis in making this decision: they don’t want to move to a club that will have Haaland. This is nothing personal, but rather a fully sporty attitude. When Endrick potentially makes its way to Europe in 2024, the Norwegian will be 24 years old and he will also have his future ahead of him.

Crucially, Erling and Endrick play in the same position as a center forward and the Brazilian’s entourage at this stage of his career would not want such a competition for the game. Endrick will logically need minutes and trust after moving to Europe to adjust to football here. Neither he nor his loved ones want to take this such an important step with any doubt. For this reason, everything is analyzed and planned down to the millimeter.

In this whole situation, comparisons to Vinícius and Rodrygo come to mind. Real Madrid formally won over the attacker in May 2017, with two months left until his 17th birthday. Until July 2018, the teenager was unable to join the club. A year later, Rodrygo came to Madrid, who signed an agreement with the Kings at the age of 17, also having to wait for his flight to Spain. They both made their debuts for Flamengo and Santos respectively at the age of 16 as Endrick, but scored their first senior goals as a 17-year-old.

Today, all of Europe is looking for its Haaland to attack. MARCH however, states that this is a mistake, because there will be no second Norwegian, but there may be similar dominant center forwards who will also be able to play at the highest level. The road of today’s City striker was also specific: he made his debut in the Premier League in Norway in May 2016 at the age of 15, but in 16 appearances for Bryne he did not score a goal. He moved to Molde in 2017, where he already scored on his debut when he was almost 17 years old. There he played for two years, after which he moved to Salzburg, where he made his debut in February 2019. The rest of the story is already pretty well known: after 29 goals in 27 games, after a year he was transferred for 20 million euros to Dortmund, where he scored 86 goals in 89 games in 2.5 years.

This summer, Manchester City paid BVB 60 or 75 million euros for its services, depending on the source, although the media still argues how large commissions were received by the player’s environment and its representatives. The media agree that in 2024, the 200-millionth clause will enter into force, which will allow him to leave Manchester. Real Madrid at the moment, however, in this perspective is fully focused only on Endrick.