Leeds United will need to spend around €30-35m if they wish to sign Matheus Cunha from Atlético Madrid in the January transfer window.
That’s according to Mundo Deportivo, who cover the player today amid growing reports of interest in the Premier League.
They explain that the Brazilian is the ‘most likely to leave’ the Wanda Metropolitano in January, when Atlético will have to do business to cover holes in their finances.
Mundo state that it is the desire of the club’s board, following the failure to reach the Champions League knockout stages, to move some players on from the squad and fill the ‘increased economic hole’ that’s developed.
There are ‘several players’ for whom offers will be listened to and at the front of that queue is Cunha, who is first ‘on the exit ramp’. He has struggled this season, failing to score and missing out on Brazil’s World Cup squad as a result.
He is very much in a low point of his career and knows that he has been put on the market ahead of January.
A couple of teams in England have already ‘expressed interest’ in him, with Leeds and Manchester United named in reports in the UK.
Atlético paid €26m to Hertha Berlin for him in the summer of 2021 but would ‘now be willing’ to sell him for a fee of €30-35m.
Whether that’s a figure Leeds or Manchester United would be willing to pay isn’t mentioned but their financial strength is known and that makes England his ‘most likely destination’ if the interest translates into anything concrete.