Rodri Picked Real, Nobody Wants Vinicius: the Summer Where Contracts Are Worth More Than Goals

Rodri has already agreed terms with Real, City are left empty-handed

Rodri has reached a personal agreement with Real Madrid. The clubs have not yet settled on a fee, but when a player has already said where he wants to go, negotiations are usually a formality with a longer deadline. The 30-year-old Spanish midfielder's contract with Manchester City expires next summer, which means City are negotiating from the weakest possible position. Rodri has just won the World Cup with Spain and was named player of the tournament, but in Manchester he never got back to his old level after the 2024 knee injury. Madrid want him so they stop being a club going a third consecutive season without a trophy. The irony: if the transfer happens, Rodri will miss the start of the season because of back surgery.

Vinicius was offered to Liverpool - and Liverpool said no

This is a sentence that would have sounded impossible two years ago. According to journalist Ben Jacobs, Vinicius Junior's people contacted Liverpool, and Liverpool were not interested - their focus is on the right wing. The Brazilian is in the final months of his Real contract, Madrid do not want to lose him for nothing, and Arsenal are thinking about it without picking up the phone to Madrid. That leaves Al-Ahli of Saudi Arabia, which usually means money will settle the story. Vinicius's numbers are serious - 128 goals and 100 assists in 375 matches for Real. The problem is not footballing: he wants to be the club's highest earner, ahead of Mbappe, and Madrid will not pay that. When one of the best wingers in the world is being shopped around and the European giants say "no thanks", that says more about the price of his contract than about his football.

The Premier League votes on 1.5 billion pounds - and on who pays it

Next week the Premier League clubs will vote on a financial package that would distribute around 1.5 billion pounds to the lower English leagues over the next decade. The negotiations have run for more than three years. At least 14 clubs are needed for it to pass. The mechanism is simple: the transfer levy rises from four to six percent - on a transfer like Morgan Rogers's to Chelsea for 117 million pounds, the levy goes from 4.68 to 7.02 million. It starts at under 100 million a year, rising to around 160 million from the third year. There is also a 20-million fund for clubs facing insolvency, and a condition that twenty percent of the money goes into infrastructure rather than wages and transfers. Behind all of it stands an independent regulator with the power to impose a solution itself if they cannot agree. That is what solidarity looks like when a league has something to lose and a regulator with teeth standing over it.

Shkendija open the season as hosts - but 100 kilometres from Tetovo

The first round of the Macedonian First Football League is completed today. After Vardar and Struga TL, it is the turn of the other two title contenders - Sileks and Shkendija, both nominally at home. Except that Shkendija, because of a sanction from the end of last season, play their first four home matches away from Tetovo. Today's game against the returning Skopje is at the pitch next to the FFM at 7pm. Sileks host Kumanovo's Bashkimi in Kratovo at 5pm. Tetovo's biggest club opens the season in front of a Skopje crowd because its own fans cost it its ground - a punishment reminding us that the infrastructure problem here is not the stand, but what happens in it.

Tihomir Kostadinov stays in the Czech Republic until 2028

Macedonian international Tihomir Kostadinov is officially staying at Czech top-flight side Slovacko, which bought out his contract from Sigma Olomouc and tied him down until the summer of 2028. Kostadinov spent the second half of last season there on loan and clearly convinced them - 13 appearances, one goal and three assists were enough for the club to trigger the purchase option. It is not a transfer that will fill front pages, but it is exactly what a Macedonian international needs: consistent minutes in a stable league and a contract that gives him peace of mind until the end of the next qualifying cycle. A loan player who earns his own permanent move - that is a rare story and worth noting.