From our football correspondent
Triumph
Market24 Aug 2026
The fee is $36.1M, the contract is signed, and the argument about whether he is worth it can begin. Benfica drove a hard bargain; time will say who won it.
Transfer targets24 Aug 2026
The approach was made and the answer came back in a sentence. There is no number on the table because there was no number that would have been enough.
Player ratings24 Aug 2026
A brace, and Kylian Mbappé takes the afternoon — 9.33
There is a particular kind of quiet from an away end watching one man score twice. Kylian Mbappé provided it, and the 9.33 beside his name is if anything generous to everybody else.
Market24 Aug 2026
The clubs have settled the fee and he has settled his wages. What remains is a medical and a photograph, and around Real Madrid people have started saying his name in the past tense.
Market24 Aug 2026
Deportivo La Coruña pay $6.9M, and the deal is done. The number reads well on a balance sheet; whether it reads well on the pitch is next season's question.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Footballers are asked about their boyhood club so often that nobody listens to the answer. Vangelis Pavlidis has just signed for Real Madrid, and for once the answer mattered.
Squad24 Aug 2026
Vinícius Júnior and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
The dugout24 Aug 2026
“I pick players who do the work. All of it.” No name was spoken; every camera still turned to Thibaut Courtois, and the manager let it.
Match22 Aug 2026
Three points for Real Madrid, 3‑1 the final word against Getafe in a contest settled by the finer margins.
Back issues
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
The deal with Benfica is done in every sense but the one that puts him on the pitch. Nothing goes wrong at this stage, except on the occasions when it does.
Transfer targets17 Aug 2026
Real Madrid asked and Real Sociedad said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market17 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Real Madrid have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.
Market17 Aug 2026
David Alaba has left for Sevilla in a $3.5M deal. The accountants are pleased; the supporters are less certain.
Market17 Aug 2026
The bid was some way short and Real Madrid did not need long over it. Nobody in the game reads a first refusal as the end of anything.
Squad17 Aug 2026
Vinícius Júnior and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Boardroom17 Aug 2026
4 academy players handed senior numbers at Real Madrid
The morning the pathway stops being a brochure and becomes a team sheet. Most of them will not be here in three years; all of them have already done the hard part, which was getting to today.
Squad17 Aug 2026
“The easiest signature of my career.” Rachad Fettal and Real Madrid agree another 4 years, and the manager can plan around him rather than about him.
Market17 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Marc Fuentes has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Real Madrid offered $63.5M; Inter said it was not close. The manager will be told the money is still there for the right player, which is what managers are told.
Transfer targets10 Aug 2026
Real Madrid asked and Athletic Bilbao said no without discussing a figure. It is the least ambiguous answer in football and the one clubs most often come back to test.
Market10 Aug 2026
The offer from AVS for Bernardo Silva was heard out and sent back the same day. First bids are rarely meant to succeed; they are meant to find out how loudly the door closes.
Market10 Aug 2026
“I have ambitions, and I would like the club to share them.” Nobody has asked to leave and nobody has been shown the door — but a player chooses that sentence carefully, and a boardroom hears it exactly as it was meant.
Squad10 Aug 2026
Kylian Mbappé and a teammate went at it, and not about football. Training grounds are small places and a long season makes them smaller.
Squad10 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Federico Valverde and Real Madrid agree another 5 years.
Boardroom10 Aug 2026
The number the board signed off was not enough. It has been asked again and raised its own offer to $28.8M — a club that wants Unai Simón enough to be asked twice.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Enrique Aguilar has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
Market10 Aug 2026
The academy exists for exactly this morning. Alejandro Garrido has come through every age group the club runs and has now been handed a senior number, and the people who coached him at twelve will be the proudest in the building.
From our football correspondent
Steady
Transfer targets3 Aug 2026
$50.9M on the table at Inter. The manager wanted him, the board agreed a number, and the only voices still to be heard are the ones at the other club.
Market3 Aug 2026
“I have given everything here and I need a new challenge.” The request is formal, and the relationship will never be quite the same again.
Market3 Aug 2026
The offer was not close and it was refused without much discussion. Whether the second one is refused as quickly is another matter.
Squad3 Aug 2026
398 appearances across 16 seasons in these colours. Careers like that are not built any more, and Real Madrid know what they have.
Market3 Aug 2026
Kylian Mbappé wants to know where this is going
“I want to win things, and I would like to do it here.” Nothing has been demanded and nothing has been threatened — but a boardroom at Real Madrid hears a sentence like that exactly as it was built.
Squad3 Aug 2026
“Some decisions take a long time. This one took ten minutes, and most of that was finding a pen.” Thibaut Courtois and Real Madrid agree another 3 years.
Squad3 Aug 2026
Kylian Mbappé and a teammate said things this week that will take longer than a week to unsay. It was not about football, and both of them play on Saturday.
Squad3 Aug 2026
David Alaba calls time on his country
“117 caps was 117 more than the boy who started ever expected.” At 34 he has stepped away from the national side and has not stepped away from Real Madrid.
Market3 Aug 2026
The interest is real enough to have reached print. Real Madrid have said nothing, which in a transfer window is its own kind of answer.