The 16-year-old will join Los Blancos in 2024 when he turns 18

There is no way back. Endrick will join Real Madrid in July 2024 when he turns 18. Palmerias have given the go-ahead to the Los Blancos offer, which will be around €40 million including add-ons.

Only some final details need to be finalised and the agreement between both parties could even become official by the beginning of next week.

Endrick, 16, will sign for five seasons in 2024 and follow in the footsteps of his compatriots Vinicius Jr. and Rodrygo, who made the jump directly from their respective clubs in Brazil to Madrid.

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Everything accelerated last week when Madrid, as they do in a large part of their operations, entered the scene to try to repeat a lightning signing, as they had done precisely with Vinicius Jr. in 2017 with Flamengo and Rodrygo in 2018 with Santos FC.

One of the reasons why Florentino Pérez gave the go-ahead to the signing was the impossibility of signing Erling Haaland, who is happy at Manchester City, where he has gotten along wonderfully with Pep Guardiola.

NO BARÇA MOVE

On this occasion, Barcelona have not been taken by surprise by Madrid's movement because they were informed of the nature of the offer. There was no reaction from the Catalan club, who are handcuffed by the Laliga Fair Play rules as Jordi Cruyff explained to SPORT this week.

And that inaction left Madrid free to move. They quickly closed a salary agreement to the liking of Endrick, his family and his agents following the molds of what they did previously with Vinicius Jr. and Rodrygo. At the same time, an emissary arrived in Sao Paulo to negotiate with Leila Pereira, president of Palmeiras.

Barça's financial situation made it impossible to take on an investment on Endrick, who, it is true, has huge potential, but he would not arrive until the 2024-25 season.