Real Madrid had one loose end to tie up before the Club World Cup, and that was signing a left back. The team is playing in the tournament with only Fran García available, apart from the youth players, and they don’t want to delay signing a new player any longer. The chosen player is Álvaro Carreras, who was unable to join the team for the World Cup due to Benfica’s reluctance to negotiate his price, but everything points to the deal going through now at a good price for the Whites.
Álvaro Carreras, the solution to a problem
Real Madrid has had an obvious problem at left back all season. Ferland Mendy was the player called upon to start, but he has not been able to play regularly due to multiple injuries that have kept him out of many games. In fact, he is currently recovering from the latest injury that required surgery and whose recovery is taking longer than expected and could keep him out until October.
The alternative was Fran García, who did not have the confidence of Carlo Ancelotti and whose performance was not the best despite all the enthusiasm and determination shown by the youth player. An effort that is paying off with Xabi Alonso in the World Cup. Despite his great performance, the club has not given up on signing Álvaro Carreras, for whom negotiations have already resumed.
Before the Club World Cup, in which the Whites already wanted to sign the player, there was no agreement because Benfica did not want to lower the €50 million release clause, while Real Madrid did not want to go above €35-40 million to close the deal. This was confirmed by the president of the Portuguese club, who said, “There were offers we didn’t like. So far, we haven’t received any that we like. We’ll see what happens with the market later.” Now the negotiations have taken a different turn and the signing is close.
Signing closed at a good price
Fabrizio Romano has confirmed that Álvaro Carreras “only wants Madrid, his only desire is Real Madrid.” Not only has the specialist journalist taken it as a done deal, but Alberto Pereiro on Onda Cero’s Radioestadio assured that “Carreras will be a Real Madrid player for 45 million euros.”
This price is below the release clause, which would be reduced as the deal includes a player. The remaining $5 million would be covered by Obrador, the Madrid youth player who is set to sign for Benfica for around $5 million. According to Fabrizio Romano, the Merengues have included Rafa Obrador in order to reduce Carreras’ release clause slightly.
The idea of the white team was to spend around €40 million, but they have not been able to reduce the operation any further if they want to have the Galician full-back in their ranks for the return to work at Valdebebas, where everything indicates that there will be very little time to wait for anyone. Everything seems very advanced, but “no one wants to get their hopes up, starting with Álvaro Carreras himself, who already knows firsthand how Benfica operates when it comes to negotiating a transfer,” according to MARCA.