Reinier Jesus: The story of Real Madrid’s forgotten €30m Brazilian wonder kid (2024)

In December 2019, Reinier Jesus was asked to attend a meeting with his family and representatives at Flamengo’s hotel for the FIFA Club World Cup in Qatar. The then 17-year-old Brazilian playmaker couldn’t hide his excitement when he was told Real Madrid were strongly interested in signing him.

Reinier had paved the way for an exit after an affordable release clause was inserted into his latest deal with Flamengo — €30million ($33m; £25m at current exchange rates), which would rise to €35m in July 2020 and €70m in January 2021 if he stayed that long. But the plan had been to move to a smaller club first, with Borussia Dortmund, Ajax and Everton all in a good position to sign him.

Madrid blew those plans out of the water. They beat Manchester City to Reinier’s signature after his father went to visit the Premier League club’s facilities. Other English sides had shown interest, while there were a few enquiries from Real’s city rivals Atletico Madrid.

But Reinier opted for the record European champions, following the route taken by his compatriots Vinicius Junior (a €45m signing from Flamengo announced in 2017) and Rodrygo (€40m from Santos in 2018). It was part of a clear strategy from Madrid to attract the best possible young talent — particularly from Brazil — after president Florentino Perez’s frustration at missing out on Neymar to Barcelona in 2013.

That policy was led by Juni Calafat, a Spanish-Brazilian executive at Madrid who is now their chief scout. After Calafat’s trusted staff in Brazil singled out Reinier as someone worth watching, he won over the player’s family with visits there to forge a good relationship. The allure of playing for Madrid did the rest.

Reinier had a few days off between the Club World Cup and South America’s Under-23 Pre-Olympic tournament in Colombia from January-February 2020. That was when he received a call from his father telling him the deal with Madrid had been agreed.

Madrid would pay Reinier’s €30m release clause, with 80 per cent going to Flamengo, 10 per cent to the family and the remaining 10 per cent to the player’s agent. Reinier and his family immediately started studying Spanish. He would join Castilla, the club’s reserve team, for the remainder of the season with a further six on his deal.

Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo had yet to fulfil their promise at the Bernabeu when Reinier joined, but his idea was to reach the pair’s heights now. Instead, the 22-year-old has just agreed a loan to second-division Granada — his fourth since 2020 — and has not made a single Madrid appearance since he joined four-and-a-half years ago.

This is the story of Madrid’s forgotten €30m Brazilian wonder kid.

The pandemic affected Reinier’s start at Madrid.

The midfielder had spent a year with almost no rest when he moved to Spain, with 10 days off between returning from the Club World Cup with Flamengo and travelling to Brazil’s training camp for the Pre-Olympic tournament.

From there he went to Rio de Janeiro, packed his bags and flew to Madrid. Reinier scored two goals and provided an assist in three matches for Castilla, managed by the legendary former Madrid striker Raul, before the season was paused in early March due to the pandemic.

Reinier spent his time training at home and in May then-coach Zinedine Zidane called him to join first-team training, but it became clear that he did not have a place in the senior squad and was too good for Castilla. He left on a two-year loan to Borussia Dortmund that summer with an option to buy after multiple clubs showed interest in him — Madrid only agreed to that length as they felt it would encourage the Germans to bid for Reinier. Dortmund would also pay €5m.

But his spell in Germany did not go to plan. Reinier considered cutting short the loan in January 2021 due to a lack of game time and, despite seeing the season out, only had 340 minutes of action in 19 games. Dortmund approached Madrid about the possibility of signing him permanently in 2021, but they rejected the offer. He then won a gold medal with Brazil at the delayed Tokyo Olympics, but played just 405 minutes in 20 games in his second season with Dortmund.

Madrid soon realised clubs were far more likely to give opportunities to players who had joined them permanently rather than on loan. Since then, they have often preferred to sell young players while putting affordable buy-back clauses and a first right of refusal into their deals.

For Reinier, that came too late. He tried to get his career back on track with a loan at Girona in the 2022-23 season, but injuries hampered his development. Despite showing some promising signs, he scored just twice and provided one assist in 620 minutes of action across 18 games.

Last summer, Madrid again looked for a loan club for Reinier that would cover a large part of the player’s salary of around €3m net per year. When that did not materialise, Reinier had limited options. He joined Frosinone of Serie A late in August, scoring three goals and providing two assists in 23 appearances as they were relegated in 18th place.

This summer has not been easy either. Reinier contacted Madrid in July to find out when he was due to start pre-season and received a reply on the 15th of that month. Days later, he found out he would be considered a player for Castilla rather than the first team this season when a specialist from Raul’s staff wrote to him asking him if he needed a training plan. The Brazilian said he had already been working with a personal trainer in his home country.

There were few offers for Reinier given his performances and Madrid’s request for any loan club to cover a large chunk of the playmaker’s salary.

Norwich City of the English Championship (second tier) were in a good position to sign him, but the player wanted to wait in case he was able to stay in Spain. His agents shared Norwich’s interest with Madrid in mid-August, which explained Reinier’s absence from Castilla’s first game of the season, an away trip to Marbella, despite being registered as one of their players.

According to sources close to Reinier, who asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships, no agreement was reached with Norwich due to the strict conditions Madrid imposed with any possible buy option.

Brazilian clubs had been monitoring his situation and Spanish second-division sides Tenerife and Eibar both asked Madrid about a possible loan. Championship side Watford was another possibility given their assistant coach Alberto Garrido joined from Madrid in June.

Head coach Carlo Ancelotti’s response to a question about the Brazilian, two days before the transfer deadline, summed up Reinier’s bleak situation.

“I recommend that he looks for a team where he can show his qualities,” the Italian said.

Granada were late contenders for Reinier’s signature and quickly convinced him, with a season-long loan deal announced on Friday. But Reinier is upset with his constantly changing situation and has not felt supported by Madrid, who have barely been in contact with him during these deals. He still believes in his quality but has known for some time that a future at Madrid is no longer viable as the club don’t trust him. Madrid directed The Athletic to Castilla when they were contacted for comment on this article.

Granada’s social media accounts welcomed Reinier as a ‘Rei’ or king, showing him sat on a throne with a lion next to him in the city’s Alhambra palace. Whether this is the loan where he can finally shine remains to be seen.

🕌 𝐑𝐄𝐈𝐍𝐈𝐄𝐑 𝐈 𝐃𝐄 𝐆𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐀𝐃𝐀. pic.twitter.com/c28eHX6vID

— Granada CF ❤️⚪️ (@GranadaCF) August 30, 2024

(Top photo: Reinier at his Real Madrid presentation; Mateo Villalba/Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)

Mario Cortegana Santos is a Football Writer for The Athletic covering Real Madrid. He has followed Los Blancos since 2019 at Diario AS, Goal.com and MARCA. He usually appears on Gol TV and is a main collaborator in the YouTube show The Four Amigos Podcast. He has covered the EURO 2020 and Qatar 2022. Follow Mario on Twitter @MarioCortegana