Three stars offered their services to Real Madrid in recent days, hoping to join the club on a free transfer in the summer of 2026. However, surprisingly, Florentino Pérez rejected all three offers, preferring to consider other options.
This was revealed by the newspaper AS in a report published on Sunday, which indicated that Rubén Neves of Al-Hilal, Dayot Upamecano of Bayern Munich, and Ibrahima Konaté of Liverpool contacted Real Madrid, hoping to join Los Blancos when their contracts with their current clubs expire at the end of this season.
Real Madrid’s management believes that player agents are exploiting the Spanish club’s name for their own benefit. While it’s true that Pérez’s administration has favored signing players whose contracts are expiring in recent years, this doesn’t mean they are exclusively following this pattern and monitoring every player entering the final six months of their contract.
Agents, for their part, have propagated the opposite narrative in the press, claiming that Real Madrid only wants players available on free transfers. Consequently, they negotiate with various clubs for larger contracts, threatening a move to the Bernabéu, just as happened with Alphonso Davies and Bayern Munich last year.
Real Madrid scrutinizes meetings with agents of this type of player with extreme caution, as the club does not want to participate in the “marketing” that always surrounds players whose contracts are expiring.
Ultimately, Real Madrid is never averse to paying for players, as they did with Dean Hoesen last summer and Álvaro Carreras, but they refuse to engage in pointless bidding wars. If a suitable opportunity arises to sign a player for free, that’s also acceptable, but it’s not the fundamental principle of Pérez’s summer transfer policy.
It’s worth noting that Real Madrid’s management has decided against entering the winter transfer market, contrary to their usual practice. The club believes that options are limited during this period, and if a good option does emerge, its price is inflated.
