Real Madrid News
Real Madrid taking measures to shield star players from Saudi Arabian clubs – Romano
Over the past couple of weeks, Real Madrid handed new contracts to three players in Vinicius Jr., Rodrygo Goes, and more recently Eduardo Camavinga.
More renewals are expected in the coming days with Federico Valverde and Eder Militao also set to be handed new deals.
Each of these new deals is equipped with a mammoth release clause of €1 billion as Real Madrid are looking to secure the long-term future of their core players.
Measures being taken to stave off Saudi Arabia
Fabrizio Romano, via Caught Offside, is now reporting that Real Madrid have taken the measures to insert the €1 billion release clauses in the new contracts in order to shield their players from Saudi Arabia.
Clubs from the Middle-Eastern country went on an aggressive transfer spree this year, signing top stars from across clubs in Europe.
Real Madrid lost Karim Benzema to Al-Ittihad while many other big names such as Neymar Jr, N’Golo Kante, Roberto Firmino, and Riyad Mahrez, among others, made the move to the club.
Romano states that Real Madrid believe Saudi Arabian teams will once again be ready to splash the big bucks on top players next summer and as such, they are protecting their key players with big release clause amounts.
“Real Madrid want their players to be happy, and comfortable, and on long-term contracts with good salaries. These high release clauses are also there to protect the players as Saudi clubs are coming again very strongly on the market in 2024,” Romano wrote.
“It’s not just for Real Madrid taking these measures, it’s the general feeling into top clubs; they know Saudi clubs will insist on top players in the next years so they want to extend contracts and improve salaries, also with higher release clauses.”
As mentioned earlier, the extension spree at Real Madrid is not yet over, as two more players will soon be signing new contracts.
Real Madrid’s main goal heading into the summer transfer window was to wrap up the signing of Jude Bellingham amid massive interest from Premier League giants such as Liverpool, Manchester City, and Chelsea.
Pep Guardiola’s City, especially, were ready to match and increase any salary Madrid offered, and were going strongly into the bidding war.
Eventually, Bellingham decided to join Madrid after they reached an agreement with Borussia Dortmund for €3 million.
However, following this, los blancos had to improvise a fair bit as Karim Benzema decided to leave the club to join Al-Ittihad on a free transfer. They were expecting him to continue for another season, at least, and it stumped their plans in the market.
In the next few weeks, Madrid chased forwards, and ended up signing Joselu, Brahim Diaz, and a certain Arda Guler, who was close to Barcelona before eventually ending up at the Santiago Bernabeu.
Unfortunately for Madrid, he is yet to play a single minute for the club after picking up a serious injury in pre-season. Despite being on the bench for a couple of games, Guler suffered a relapse in training, and was sidelined again.
Now, reports from Yagiz Sabuncuoglu say that the Turkish international is close to returning to team training.
Guler has slowly, but surely, been recovering from his injury, and could take to the pitch for his first minutes with the club in the next few weeks as Madrid look for solutions after a month full of injuries.
With Vinicius Jr, Eduardo Camavinga, Aurelien Tchouameni, Eder Militao, and Thibaut Courtois all out until early 2024, Madrid have relied on Castilla for reinforcements, but could do with Guler’s services in their forward line.
That said, Carlo Ancelotti and co. are expected to be extremely cautious when it comes to the Turkish international. The slightest spell of poor man-management here could make or break the youngster’s career.
