Cañizares’s objection is not that Vinicius Junior is finished at the Santiago Bernabéu. It is that the club missed the clean exit.
In comments on Cope reported by Defensa Central, the former Real Madrid goalkeeper said he had hoped the board would let Vinicius’s old contract run down and allow the forward to leave as a free agent in the summer of 2027. His reasoning was cold: a player who had already delivered two Champions Leagues no longer carried resale value, and letting him go for nothing would have been the clean parting.
Instead Real Madrid committed to a new deal that keeps him at the club until 2032. The extension was announced on 6 August 2026, ending months of talks and shutting down Arsenal, who had been watching the negotiations in case they collapsed.
“Renewing his contract is a mistake, but playing him in matches is a double mistake,” Cañizares told Cope.
Read also: FIFA fails to answer 42 questions about Gianni Infantino
His verdict on where the forward sits in the squad right now is bleaker still. The former Spain international argued that Vinicius is currently giving Real Madrid nothing in terms of image, dressing-room presence or on-pitch output, a sharper read than almost any voice inside the Spanish capital has offered this autumn.
‘Not every club wants him’
On Arsenal, Cañizares poured cold water on the idea the Premier League side would have taken Vinicius even if the renewal had collapsed. His case was less about football than reputation: Vinicius, he said, is a young man with too many off-pitch problems, and image-conscious buyers would hesitate.
“He is a young man with many problems, and not every club wants him,” Cañizares told Cope.
To make the point he reached for Yan Diomande, the Ivory Coast winger Real Madrid signed from RB Leipzig this summer in a reported €140m deal that made the 19-year-old their record signing. There is a difference, he argued, between a club signing Diomande for his character and signing Vinicius with his.
Read also: Liverpool ready to spend €100m on Valverde – Real Madrid have other plans
Mourinho holds the line in the dressing room
The mood around the first team is less combative. José Mourinho, who was named head coach on a three-year deal in June 2026, has backed Vinicius through the opening months of the season, according to Defensa Central’s report, and has kept building his left-side attack around the forward.
Vinicius’s new contract runs to 30 June 2032, when the Brazilian will be 31.
Read also: Russell breaks his silence on life in Antonelli’s shadow: ‘More bad days than good’
