In response, club president Florentino Perez hired Alonso and sanctioned around €180million (£155m; $210.5m) to be spent on new players, including defenders Dean Huijsen, Alvaro Carreras and Trent Alexander-Arnold, along with exciting young Argentine playmaker Franco Mastantuono.

The 2025-26 La Liga season is here, as Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid are fighting to retake the division crown from Barcelona.

The main reported issue behind the disagreement is believed to be Vinicius not agreeing with the overall pay that Real Madrid are willing to offer him. The 25-year-old star is currently earning around €17m per annum, which is the second-highest salary in the Los Blancos squad after Kylian Mbappe.

The new Real Madrid of Xabi Alonso will begin La Liga today: this evening the Blancos will host Osasuna at Santiago Bernabeu for the first day of the Spanish championship. More experiments for

Our Real Madrid writers guide you through the biggest talking points at the Spanish club, in a new weekly series

Real Madrid forward Kylian Mbappe scored 31 La Liga goals in the 2024-25 La Liga season, but did not register a goal against two teams.