Can Real Madrid Afford to Lose Vinicius Junior?

Just a few months before his 24th birthday, Vinícius Júnior led Real Madrid to their second Champions League title in three years. The Brazilian bagged a goal in each final, cementing his place not just in the competition’s record books, but in Los Blancos’ European folklore as well.

The prospect of a transfer seemed utterly laughable. With Cristiano Ronaldo’s fabled number seven across his back, Vinícius Jr was the face of Real Madrid. The best winger in the world. The favorite to win the 2024 Ballon d’Or.

Fast forward two years later and Kylian Mbappé is now the face of Real Madrid. The best winger in the world is Lamine Yamal. The favorite to win the 2026 Ballon d’Or is the Barcelona phenom or his Spain teammate Rodri.

Vinícius Júnior saw his influence decrease once Kylian Mbappé joined Real Madrid. | M Gracia Jimenez/Soccrates/Getty Images

Suddenly Vinícius Jr has become somewhat of an afterthought to everyone but Madridistas—and even many of those are content to give Mbappé the keys to the attack. Club president Florentino Pérez perhaps shares the mindset despite his public statements suggesting otherwise.

After all, the Spaniard has so far been unwilling to budge on contract negotiations with Vinícius Jr, potentially pushing the Brazil international out the door and right to north London, where defending Premier League champions Arsenal await with open arms.

The potential transfer would see Real Madrid no doubt receive a record-shattering fee, but there’s no monetary figure that can compensate for what Vinícius Jr brings to the Bernabéu.

Vinícius Jr’s Recent Struggles Are Exaggerated

It’s easy to say Real Madrid can bounce back from losing Vinícius Jr. Without the Brazilian, the attack would fully run through Mbappé, who has already led the team in scoring in back-to-back seasons.

Cashing in on Vinícius Jr would also give Los Blancos the capital to go out and secure game-changing transfers to patch the hole left on the left wing. There’s surely an argumentative essay somewhere out there in the world that claims the club no longer needs its superstar No. 7.

The growing discontent has come over the last two years amid Real Madrid’s failure to win a major trophy. Vinícius Jr has no longer been as decisive or productive, often lacking true chemistry with Mbappé up top.

Yet one look at Vinícius Jr’s numbers shows just how overblown the discourse is surrounding the winger’s supposed decline.

Vinícius Jr’s Last Five Seasons at Real Madrid: By the Numbers

Season	Appearances	Goals	Assists
2025–26	53	22	10
2024–25	52	21	15
2023–24	39	24	9
2022–23	55	23	19
2021–22	52	22	16

In the last two seasons of which Vinícius Jr supposedly lost his touch, the forward recorded 43 goals and 25 assists. In total, that’s 68 goal contributions while sharing the pitch with goalscoring machine Mbappé.

Not to mention, that output came while playing within a fractured, disjointed team, under three different managers. Yet he still ended 2025–26 just two goals shy of his career-best haul from 2023–24.

Vinícius Jr’s Champions League Prowess Is Irreplaceable

Let’s focus specifically on the Champions League, which is the winger’s favorite competition. Vinícius Jr tallied four goals and one assist in six knockout stage matches last season, dragging Real Madrid past Benfica and then Manchester City.

Mbappé might have scored 15 goals on Europe’s biggest stage in 2025–26, but 13 game in the league phase. The inflated numbers give casual fans the notion that Real Madrid can reach Champions League glory with just Mbappé leading the line, but it’s Vinícius Jr who turns it on when the lights are the brightest in Europe.

Allowing the Brazilian to transfer would leave José Mourinho without his best Champions League player, forced to trust Mbappé top get the team over the line when the Frenchman has never even lifted Europe’s most prestigious club trophy.

Of course, there are other veterans in the team, like Federico Valverde and Thibaut Courtois, who know what it takes to reach the mountaintop. But it’s Vinícius Jr who puts the team on his back in the biggest moments, even during a season when he was not as clinical as he was in the past.

Vinícius Jr’s Playmaking Flies Under the Radar

Jude Bellingham, Vinícius Júnior — Jude Bellingham (left) often benefits from Vinícius Júnior’s playmaking. | Joaquin Corchero/Europa Press/Getty Images

Vinícius Jr steals the show with his sensational dribbling and individual goals, but his creativity in the final third is an underrated part of his game. The Brazil International loves to pull out a trivela assist when everyone least expects it, and he gets his head up to scan the pitch for a streaking Jude Bellingham or Mbappé more than he gets credit for.

In the last five seasons, Vinícius Jr recorded 69 assists across all competitions. The number is even more impressive when taking into account that the 26-year-old does not take set pieces.

When he has players making runs forward and crashing the box, Vinícius Jr can easily switch from goalscorer to facilitator, something Mbappé rarely does in a white shirt. The Frenchman simply doesn’t have to most of the time, because Vinícius Jr is the one setting up chances.

It’s a wonder to think how many more assists Vinícius Jr would have if he had a proper No. 9 playing alongside him, but that’s a different conversation.

Real Madrid Can’t Afford Another Dressing Room Disaster

José Mourinho needs Vinícius Júnior to get Real Madrid back to winning ways. | Antonio Villalba/Real Madrid/Getty Images

Beyond Vinícius Jr’s goalscoring and playmaking, there’s something to be said about losing such a prominent face and voice in the dressing room. For all the team’s internal issues last season, not one involved the Brazilian beyond his tense relationship with former boss Xabi Alonso.

Mbappé and Bellingham fell out, Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni had a confrontation that ended with a trip to the hospital and Antonio Rüdiger slapped Álvaro Carreras. For all the negative narratives constantly being spun about Vinícius Jr, there were no rumblings about the player clashing with his teammates during arguably the most volatile season at the Bernabéu in the last decade.

There is genuine respect for the No. 7 in the dressing room for all he’s achieved at the club, and Vinícius Jr has always shown that back to this teammates.

With the club already in a period of transition, it cannot afford to ship out one of the most beloved players both on and off the pitch, a player who has pledged his loyalty to the badge time and time again.

At Real Madrid, nearly every player has been replaceable at one point or another—even Ronaldo was in 2018. But at this very moment, Vinícius Jr is not, and losing him would turn the club’s downward spiral into a complete free fall.

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