On Wednesday, claims came from Spain which stated Real Madrid have given up on signing Kylian Mbappe from PSG.
After being let down on repeat occasions, Los Blancos were said to have had enough and were instead looking at other options. There was also doubt over where Mbappe would play given Vinicius is arguably Madrid’s major attacking outlet.
Essentially, they don’t fancy him that much anyway.
That immediately saw links with Manchester City’s Erling Haaland, but there’s others also being thrown forward and that’s where Newcastle United get a mention.
The Magpies have been strongly linked with Marcos Leonardo over the past week, with interest in the Santos striker starting to build again.
Newcastle and others being keen on the 20-year-old makes some sense, and inevitably Real Madrid have also been dragged in.
Friday’s edition of AS relays claims from Brazil, mentions Newcastle interest, and states Los Blancos are ‘thinking about it’.
Online, the same newspaper calls him a ‘mix between Neymar, Vinicius and Rodrygo’, which is quite the claim.
One to keep an eye on in the coming weeks.