Lille will pay the compensation of 20 million to Sporting Lisbon-Corriere.it

Raphael Leao could breathe a huge sigh of relief and perhaps even get closer to renewing with Milan, to a signing that the Rossoneri fans (including the club in via Aldo Rossi) hope will arrive soon with the extension of the agreement, now expiring on 30 June 2024. As reported by the Portuguese newspaper Record, the turning point for the Portuguese player could come from France.

Lille, the old winger club, should take charge of the full payment of the debt that the Portuguese has with him Sporting Lisbon, after the unilateral termination of the contract following the events of 2018. Rewinding the tape of events, in 2021 Rafael Leao was sentenced in Portugal to pay 16.5 million euros in compensation (plus interest of around 3.8 million ) to Sporting Lisbon, a team in which he grew up football (he arrived when he was nine years old), because the reasons for just cause had not been recognized for the farewell to the Portuguese club that took place three years earlier, in 2018. But what had happened? At the end of the 2017-2018 season Rafael Leao had unilaterally terminated the contract, together with other teammates, due to the violent attack organized by fans at the club’s sports center following the failure to qualify for the Champions League. And he had moved to Lille on a free transfer, a team that then sold him to the Rossoneri after just one year for the sum of 29.5 million euros.

Hence the denunciation of Sporting Lisbon and in 2021 the conviction of the player by various Portuguese courts of justice to pay the debt contracted with the club. Then in February 2022 the Tas (Court of Arbitration for Sport) instead, he had established that the payment of the debt would have to be paid to Lille. In May 2022 there was then the decision of the Court of Milan, to which the Portuguese team had turned to enforce the sentence issued in Portugal, for which the compensation had to be paid by Leao. A sentence that had paved the way for the possible attachment of the player’s salary. Meanwhile, for now, a first appeal by Lille against the CAS decision would have been rejected, which would have convinced the French team to pay, even if the appeal is open and therefore the matter is not concluded.

In short, a real judicial intrigue, which Milan monitors carefully, aware that the renewal game is played on this and they want to avoid other Donnarumma cases, Calhanoglu and Kessie, left on a free transfer. Now, however, as Record explained, it would be up to the French club to pay the 20.3 million euros (16.5 million euros of the initial compensation, plus 3.8 million euros in interest), after Lille had initially been sentenced to be “co-solidarity” with Rafa in resolving the issue. A situation that would allow the Rossoneri to avoid the attachment of part of the salary and Milan to sink the blow on the renewal of the contract.