Real Madrid selling other teams' players to fuel Enzo Fernandez transfer

Analysis

Robin Bairner | Chief Editor

Accredited football journalist and editor covering the game since 2006

Jose Mourinho’s return to Real Madrid has sparked a flurry of important transfer decisions from the Bernabeu club.

With the team in need of reconstruction following their disappointing 2025/26 campaign under Xabi Alonso and then Alvaro Arbeloa, Mourinho has been working tirelessly to build a squad to his liking.

This has meant leaning on experienced, combative players. Ibrahima Konate has been recruited at centre-back, where Antonio Rudiger has been handed a new contract, while Los Blancos have signed Marc Cucurella for the left side of their defence and Bernardo Silva to boost their midfield options.

More deals will be made. A central midfielder is firmly in Los Blancos’ sights, with Chelsea’s Enzo Fernandez the man they want.

Enzo, too, wants the transfer concluded. He has made it clear publicly that Real Madrid is his dream club.

The issue is that Chelsea have put a transfer fee of €140 million (£120m) on the Argentine’s head, a figure that they believe Los Blancos can match given Florentino Perez’s grand announcement that they had bid €150m for Julian Alvarez in a move that now appears to be backfiring.

Real Madrid now find themselves in fund-raising mode, which means selling off players they do not need.

Munoz and Paz deals fuelling Madrid’s transfer business

Mourinho has some quick and easy solutions to raise money. The Portuguese is selling off the club’s future talents, who have been parked at other clubs – players Real Madrid don’t even technically own.

One such deal has already been done. Liverpool will snap up Victor Munoz from Osasuna in a €40m deal. Real Madrid had a buy-back option for the Spain winger worth just €8m, but they opted not to exercise it.

Instead, they will receive €25m from the deal (€5m in add-ons from Osasuna and €20m from Liverpool via a sell-on clause they had for the 22-year-old). The Athletic reports that the Madrid board see this as “good business”. It’s hard to argue.

Next will be Nico Paz. Officially, the Argentine is not a Real Madrid player, but the Spanish club effectively control his future due to a complicated series of clauses in the agreement that took him to Cesc Fabregas’ side for just €6m in 2024.

Now the Spaniards are effectively telling the Champions League-bound club: give us €60m more or we’ll buy him back for €10m and then sell him.

And Paz will have no shortage of suitors. Corriere della Serra is just one of several Italian sources indicating that Inter Milan are willing to splash that money on the 21-year-old rising star.

Mourinho apparently has little interest in using the Argentine as little more than a pawn he can use in order to raise €50m.

Combined with the Munoz income, which represents more than half of Enzo Fernandez’s transfer fee.

A smart transfer policy

All of this may look rather cut-throat to the casual observer, but from Real Madrid’s perspective, it’s smart squad management.

They have farmed out young players they did not need to other clubs to progress while ultimately retaining a sizeable stake in their futures. If the players had flopped, little loss to Los Blancos, who had already banked a small transfer fee for them, but in the case of both Munoz and Paz, the payoff has been tremendous.

Now Real Madrid and Mourinho are ready to cash in – and their investment and patience could be critical in landing Enzo.