Ronaldo Luís Nazário de Lima has asked for a favour from his former club Real Madrid after it has emerged that he wants to take one of their players out on loan for Real Valladolid.
The 42-year-old Brazilian legend is the majority shareholder (51 per cent) and president of the Spanish club, but he is keen to reinforce his side's squad ahead of the new season.
According to Diario AS, Ronaldo has spoken to his former employers about signing Vinícius Júnior on a season-long loan.
The 18-year-old Brazilian forward has shown how much potential he has in his debut season at Los Blancos, with manager Zinedine Zidane even giving him some opportunities since his return from injury at the start of the month.
However, the two-time Copa América and World Cup-winning Brazilian believes that he could offer Vinícius plenty of time to develop at the Estadio José Zorrilla next season.
"Hopefully, we can have him at Valladolid. I can't pay his wages. If Madrid loaned him out, we would embrace him very well," Ronaldo said at a Santander event earlier this month.
"He is very talented, like Rodrygo. Madrid have reinforced with lots of young players."
Vinícius, who missed out on a chance to make his senior international debut for Brazil after he was left out of the Copa América squad, signed for the reigning Champions League holders in 2017 -- before he turned 18 -- and was formally presented as a Madrid player a year later.
In fact, Ronaldo was at his unveiling at the Santiago Bernabéu last summer, which only reinforces how highly the Brazilian legend holds the ex-Flamengo star.
Vinícius, who was signed for a reported fee of €46m, has made 36 appearances for Madrid across all competitions this season, having scored seven times and assisting on 13 occasions.
The Valladolid target recently admitted that he has been happy with how his season has panned out, despite the club missing out on some big silverware.
"For me, on a personal level, it has been a great year. I started in [Real Madrid] Castilla, I knew that could happen and I knew that's where I was going to be for the first few weeks. Then I played for the first team and I learned so much," he told Marca.
"It was a shame that we couldn't perform on neither one of the three main competitions, but the team was coming off winning three straight Champions League titles and unfortunately this could happen.
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"We are all looking forward to playing better next season so that the team wins again. I am sure we will do it."
Zidane could be ready to loan out Vinícius, especially as he plans to revamp his squad with world-class stars like Chelsea's Eden Hazard.
Should Madrid loan out Vinícius?
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