Real Madrid enter the race for Gremio starlet Arthur who is linked with Barcelona

Angry at the leak of a photo showing midfield talent Arthur in a Barcelona shirt alongside Robert Fernandez, Gremio have begun to speak to officials of Real Madrid about signing the Brazilian.


The 21-year-old has become one of the revelations of the Brazilian championship with his teammate Luan, leading their club to the conquest of the Copa Libertadores.

This honour allowed the team to qualify for the Club World Cup, ultimately seeing them advance to face none other than Real Madrid in the final on Saturday.

Gremio are initially requesting a fee of 50 million euros for Arthur, which happens to be his buyout clause.

Because Gremio and Brazilian football clubs in general struggle to match the financial power of many clubs in Europe, they have been left with little to no choice but to sell and may have to relinquish the player for less than they are requesting.

It was only a few weeks ago that Arthur was directly linked with a move to Barcelona, after a photo leaked of the Brazilian in the Catalans' shirt standing alongside the club technical secretary Robert Fernandez.

The unknown meeting infuriated officials with Gremio, who are now looking elsewhere despite choosing to not report Barcelona to FIFA.

Neither Arthur nor his agent, Jorge Machado, have signed any agreement with the Blaugrana.

As MARCA have reported, Arthur is well liked by Madrid scouts. They consider his hypothetical addition to be an interesting one, as he is one of the finest talents available on the Brazilian market in recent years along with the already signed Vinicius Junior.

Sources close to the player have assured that Arthur is not committed to Barcelona and that the player wants nothing to do with the Catalan club at this point in time.

Ideally, Gremio would love to hang on to Arthur for another year or at least until the summer, but the delicate financial situation at the club may force a sale sooner rather than later.

Club chief Andre Zanotta acknowledged yesterday that they cannot close the door on Arthur's desire to play in Europe, although they dream of him continuing in Porto Alegre until 2020 at least. He recognised the current anger with Barcelona, but conceded that finances could trump any emotional preferences.