We all remember back in 2022, when Real Madrid thought they were completing the acquisition of the best attacking trio since MSN: Kylian Mbappe, Erling Haaland, and Vinicius Junior. To add, this was also after Real Madrid had won their 14th Champions League, so this would cement them their place among football’s best teams ever. However, Mbappe ended up shockingly renewing his deal with PSG and Haaland choosing to move to his father, Alf-Inge Haaland’s former club in Man City. Put a Karim Benzema free transfer away from Madrid to Al Ittihad on top of that, as well as ACL injuries to Eder Militao and Thibault Courtois, and Madrid’s team isn’t as stacked as Madridistas had once dreamed about. However, credit, the players who have needed to have stepped up, especially Jude Bellingham, who is likely the early favorite for the 2024 Ballon D’Or. This early success had led Madridistas – and Florentino Perez – to start dreaming about the duo that is seemingly their destiny. It is much harder this time around, for sure, but is it possible? Let’s see.
Let’s first look at the most obvious sticking point of this deal: money. Let’s see how much these two deals would likely cost Real Madrid, in transfer fees and wages. The only free part would be Kylian Mbappe, who looks unlikely to renew with PSG this summer, and his transfer fee would be free. However, he’d likely want 50-60 million euros per year from Real Madrid, over 3 times what Madrid are currently paying anybody else right now. However, it isn’t that bad of a cost.
However, Erling Haaland is another story. He’d probably want the same wages as Mbappe would receive, and the transfer fee would be insane. If he was to leave City next summer, it’d be a 200 million euro deal. This would be a quarter-billion-euro deal for Madrid for the first season. Assuming they both sign 4-year deals, it would be a 600 million-euro commitment from Real Madrid, nearly impossible for La Liga spending standards.
Real Madrid needs to make some hard decisions in order to make these deals happen. Would names like Rodrygo and Valverde be below their best if the two deals happened and would be better suited leaving to gain some money and make space for the deal? Would Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, the only remnants of the superteam which won 3 UCLs in a row be dead wages and Madrid had just better let them leave on frees? Having just made a 100 million Euro swoop for Jude Bellingham, and renovated the Santiago Bernabeu for 1 billion euros, they need to raise money somehow.
All of Real Madrid’s top 4 earners (Alaba, Kroos, Modric, Courtois) are over 30 years old, and they may have to all go in order to make the two deals happen. The proposed salaries of Mbappe and Haaland alone are worth more than the entire wage budgets of 17 other La Liga teams, so they really need to make sacrifices for the deals to happen.
Assuming they can make it happen financially and to a point where La Liga approves the deals, there are still 2 big obstacles in the way of a deal. Assuming Madrid get Mbappe for free and pay Haaland’s release clause, the clubs can’t get in the way of deals (except if Man City renews Haaland’s contract without a release clause), Mbappe wouldn’t be a problem to convince, but Haaland would be. Madrid are going to have to convince Erling Haaland to trade in a spot with the treble winners for an unproven Galacticos reboot, which will be tricky. However, Real Madrid’s pull is only rivaled by that of Barcelona’s in the world of football, which is always something Los Blancos have going for them.
The last obstacle to face is the viability of this plan. Sure, a front three of Vinicius, Haaland, and Mbappe being fed by a midfield of Jude Bellingham, Eduardo Camavinga, and Aurelien Tchouameni seems good, really good on paper, but would this even work out? Would this front three compliment each other as the MSN trio did, or hurt each other as the MNM trio did? Would their production collectively reduce as they aren’t individually the best in the attack anymore?
The original Galacticos were an amazing team, and provided amazing moments, and won tons of trophies, 2 Champions Leagues and 2 La Ligas, but the aftermath of it was awful for Los Blancos. Their reckless spending and reckless departure policy let Barcelona take advantage after Florentino Perez left the president role in 2006, and kickstart the best era in the club’s history. Particularly, Madrid sold a young Samuel Eto’o for cheap, and he’d become a Barcelona club legend.
These 3 obstacles are all looking to stop Real Madrid’s pursuit of Mbappe and Haaland, and I personally believe it’s too much for Madrid to overcome. I also think it’s best for the club if they don’t sign them, for reasons I explained earlier. We’ll have to see. I’m Jim James, until next time.