Real Madrid have reportedly had a big bid rejected by RB Leipzig for the potential transfer of Yan Diomande, who could replace Vinicius Junior.
Arsenal fans will no doubt be keeping a close eye on this story as it could prove significant for their summer transfer window plans.
DOWNLOAD THE OFFICIAL CAUGHTOFFSIDE APP FOR ALL THE LATEST & BREAKING UPDATES – STRAIGHT TO YOUR PHONE! ON APPLE & GOOGLE PLAY
Vinicius has been linked as an ambitious target for the Gunners in a report from the Athletic yesterday, but one imagines that Diomande’s future will have a big impact on whether or not the Brazil international is available.
Sky Sports are for now reporting that Real have seen an initial bid of over £85m turned down by Leipzig, so what could this mean for Arsenal?
?? Vinicius Jr is going to LIGHT up this World Cup! ? pic.twitter.com/Zxa6FsAlEj
— CaughtOffside (@caughtoffside) June 14, 2026
Arsenal linked with Vinicius Junior and Yan Diomande
Interestingly, even if this looks like it complicates Arsenal’s potential move to sign Vinicius, the report from Sky Sports also claims that the north London giants are one of the teams eyeing up Diomande.
The talented young Ivory Coast international could be another superb option for Mikel Arteta’s side in attack, so there might be an opportunity here for them to try coming in with a bigger bid to Leipzig.
For now, however, all signs point towards Diomande heading to Madrid instead, with Fabrizio Romano also weighing in on this story by saying the 19-year-old has not opened the doors to the likes of Arsenal and Manchester City for the moment…
??? Manchester City have gone quiet on Yan Diomande days ago after calls to check the situation, same for Arsenal.
Diomande has only opened doors to Real Madrid since he agreed personal terms with Paris Saint-Germain in June.
Real Madrid now in club to club talks with Leipzig. pic.twitter.com/jWoBpRUDEs
— Fabrizio Romano (@FabrizioRomano) July 25, 2026
Posting on X yesterday afternoon, Romano said: “Manchester City have gone quiet on Yan Diomande days ago after calls to check the situation, same for Arsenal. Diomande has only opened doors to Real Madrid since he agreed personal terms with Paris Saint-Germain in June.”
So, this probably means Vinicius remains Arsenal’s best hope, even if it’s still something at an early stage.
One imagines, however, if Real can come back in with a better offer for Diomande and get Leipzig to agree to the deal, then that could speed things up in terms of Vinicius’ exit.
The 26-year-old has just one year left on his contract at the Bernabeu, so it makes sense for the Spanish giants to cash in on him this summer instead of risking losing him on a free next year.
Vinicius Junior would arguably be Arsenal’s biggest signing ever
Arsenal have had plenty of world class players in modern times, with Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp, and Patrick Vieira widely regarded as all-time Premier League greats.
They haven’t always splashed the cash as much as their rivals, but have occasionally made statements in the market with signings like Mesut Ozil and Declan Rice.
Want more CaughtOffside coverage? Add us as a preferred source on Google to your favourites list for news you can trust
| Vini Jr 2025/26 | Games | Goals | Assists |
| La Liga | 36 | 16 | 5 |
| UCL | 14 | 5 | 5 |
| World Cup (Brazil) | 5 | 4 | 1 |
The signing of Vinicius, however, would arguably be a whole other level from any of those.
The Brazilian is a genuine global superstar at the peak of his powers, who has scored 128 goals in 376 games for Real Madrid, including in two victorious Champions League finals.
This is also a player with over 63 million followers on Instagram – almost three times as many as Arsenal’s currently most-followed player Gabriel Jesus. He’s also one of few footballers to have a Netflix documentary about him.
Short of signing Kylian Mbappe or Erling Haaland, it’s hard to imagine AFC could land a bigger name in world football right now than Vini Jr, who would surely instantly become their highest earner and one of the biggest names in the Premier League.
this is news to you but not to many of us. Madrid already preparing a 100m plus bid in few days. so do some background check before you come up with stale news
Just two points to make in this post as I was ridiculed 5 weeks ago.
My Arsenal friends seem amazed at this news and they now apologize for laughing at me 5 weeks ago, when I told them Arsenal will be soon making an initial £77m bid for the unhappy Vinicius, this due to his love for Arsenal and his remaining contract situation.
Who is laughing now!
I was the first to mention Arsenals negotiation for Vinicius over 5 weeks ago on another media site ( for which I kept the article as proof and the date), and then repeated this two weeks ago on this site, which was ignored, and then again last week when you mentioned that Arsenal missed out on Jan diomande to Real Madrid, I then told you, “good because Arsenal are after the unhappy Vinicius, who was a huge fan of Henry and loves Arsenal”.
I even told you the price was an affordable £77m, due to a remaining one year contract that Vinicius refused to sign an extension, and Madrid being desperate to recover £77m.
No other fan or media site mentioned this until after I mention it over 5 weeks ago, and no body believe it was true and it was never even mentioned as a possible transfer. I even mentioned Vinicius dropping his £400k plus wages down as Arsenal would be offering him a huge signing on bonus seeing as his purchase would be just £77m.
The reason I am rubbing in this Vinicius to Arsenal “probability” news is because I got shuntted by fans at the time for being ridiculous 5 weeks ago, and being trolled and laughed at in their replys. Not that this is actual proof that they will get him, but they have made enquiries to his agent, for which I have resources, which is why I know about the discussion of an initial £77m fee and a wage adjustment, that and the knowledge that he loves Henry and Arsenal from a comment once made, gave me the opinion that this is a real possibility, and it makes sense, instead of the ridiculous inflated prices for other players connected to Arsenal.
Now all the media sites are jumping on the news of the possibility of Vinicius to Arsenal and saying that this is just come in, and fans that are mentioning it because they read my post 5 weeks, 2 weeks and last week, where I have been the original bearer of this news that the fans have read. I have the news article from 5 weeks ago that’s dated.
Why has this Vinicius interest deal by Arsenal only now, being recognised. Why can’t Arsenal bid for big names too.
Arsenal are one of the top financial 5 clubs in world football and are the fastest growing club that’s proven to be self sustainable.
Others in the top 5 are rumoured to be financed by either local government, bogus non kosher sponsorship companies that are 3rd party owned by their club owners or non disclosed director invested, so the rumours go. Theses are rumours spread, due to clubs being able to pay overvaluation prices without providing evidence of financial accountability, so when you see the likes of ManC130 and their alleged impending charges and paying £130m on an ordinary but good player and Chelsea+30 paying £30 over the top for a low “european stat” player, it will spread negative opinions.
There is of course No actual “disclosed” proof of these financial deviations as they are just rumours and opinions, just like my opinion 5 weeks ago regarding Vinicius, but their is logical calculations regarding what opinions makes more sense than actual evidential “disclosed” proof. This being IMO and from what I’ve read recently also from others.
The thing I like about caughtoffside is that they always let their readers voice the opinions as long as they are not abusing one another by trolling and just giving respectful facts. Like I did 5 weeks ago regarding my observation that Arsenal may show an interest in £77m Vinicius, due to his decision not to sign a new contract and his love for Arsenal.