In January 2018, doubts over Keylor Navas prompted a goalkeeper search at Real Madrid.
Kepa Arrizabalaga of Athletic Bilbao was lined up as a replacement, but with a deal practically completed, Madrid’s then-head coach Zinedine Zidane pulled the plug.
Zidane instead preferred to back other squad members until the end of that season, a stance supported by prominent dressing-room figures such as Sergio Ramos, Madrid’s captain at the time. Arrizabalaga ended up renewing his contract with Athletic, signing a new deal up to 2025 with a release clause of €80million (£68.8m/$87.5m at today’s exchange rates).
Some wondered whether Zidane’s decision was influenced by the fact his son Luca, then 19, was one of the club’s backup goalkeepers.
That summer, Zidane senior suddenly stepped down, and his departure triggered a goalkeeper dance: Thibaut Courtois arrived at the Bernabeu from Chelsea, who went straight for Arrizabalaga. At 23 years old, Arrizabalaga became the most expensive goalkeeper in history as the Premier League club matched his release clause.
Madrid have few regrets about signing Courtois, who cost them €40million. But still, the situation was instructive for the club’s senior management. They realised they had made a mistake by giving so much power over transfer decisions to a coach, and have sought to avoid doing so again in the years since.
Over the years that followed, despite some disappointing moments for him at Chelsea, Madrid’s board never lost their appreciation for Arrizabalaga, now 28 and with 13 caps for Spain. So, after Courtois’ ACL knee injury in training last week greatly disrupted the club’s plans for the new season, they acted quickly and decisively to close a deal.
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On Friday, a day after Courtois suffered his long-term injury, the mood and messaging coming out of the Bernabeu suggested reserve ’keeper Andriy Lunin would be given a chance — head coach Carlo Ancelotti spoke positively about the 24-year-old Ukraine international at his first pre-match news conference of the season. Lunin then played the 90 minutes in Saturday’s 2-0 opening-weekend win away to Athletic but, in truth, the decision from the beginning was to sign a replacement.
As The Athletic reported, the coaching staff have had doubts about Lunin for some time, and the club were never likely to run the risk of having only one experienced goalkeeper in the first-team squad.
The options on the bench in Bilbao were Lucas Canizares, 21, and 18-year-old Fran Gonzalez, neither of whom have played a minute for Madrid’s senior side. Betting on Lunin as the only option for a season of more than 50 games across all competitions was not considered ideal. Courtois is not expected to be fit again until April at the earliest.
Arrizabalaga fitted perfectly into the club’s plans. There was one problem, though: following Chelsea’s signing of Brighton goalkeeper Robert Sanchez at the start of this month, he already had an agreement in place to go on loan to Bayern Munich — everything but minor formalities had been agreed.
Although Bayern had put forward various proposals, such as including an option to buy, Chelsea — who blocked Arrizabalaga from making a loan move to Italy’s Serie A last summer — only wanted it to be a loan.
“We are so happy with him. He is showing great commitment and adapting to the new demands from Toni (Jimenez, goalkeeper coach) and the staff. He is a fantastic ’keeper,” Chelsea’s new head coach Mauricio Pochettino said three weeks ago, underlining his confidence in Arrizabalaga.
Behind closed doors, the story was the same. Pochettino was keen for Arrizabalaga to stay, but Bayern wanted to sign him in time to play in the German Super Cup last weekend, as they eventually did with Tottenham striker Harry Kane. Head coach Thomas Tuchel, who knew Arrizabalaga well from his 19 months as Chelsea boss, was key in bringing an agreement close. At the last moment however, when the player was practically ready to travel to Munich, Madrid came calling.
They contacted Arrizabalaga’s camp on Friday, and the perspective among the latter immediately changed. A move home to Spain was given full priority, and the player’s entourage asked Madrid to act quickly, for fear of missing out on both options.
Chief executive Jose Angel Sanchez, who spearheaded the operation, had already contacted Chelsea. The Premier League club offered Real the same terms as the nearly-complete Bayern loan — which would have seen them pay 100 per cent of the goalkeeper’s salary during his season in Bavaria. Madrid accepted and closed the deal, with reports in Spain subsequently suggesting a fee of €1million was also paid to the Londoners.
“We were close, and in fact we wanted to present Kepa today. But he is Spanish and he chose Real Madrid,” Bayern chief executive Jan-Christian Dreesen said during their presentation of Kane to the media on Sunday.
At that point, Arrizabalaga had spoken again to Tuchel. It was important to him to thank the Bayern coach for his trust, and to explain why he has opted to join Madrid.
On Saturday morning, Arrizabalaga began to say goodbye to his Chelsea team-mates. At the same time, their Madrid counterparts started to find out, both from the club and from the goalkeeper himself, that he was soon to arrive. Arrizabalaga had talked to former Chelsea team-mate Antonio Rudiger before the deal was done, and the news was also now shared with his Spain team-mates Dani Carvajal, Nacho Fernandez and Joselu.
Luis Llopis, Madrid’s goalkeeping coach, was another key figure.
He knows Arrizabalaga from his time as a coach at Athletic’s academy, where he trained with the player when he was starting to emerge as a youngster. More than 10 years have passed but the two men have always maintained a good relationship — they were seen talking together on the pitch as Madrid and Chelsea met in the Champions League quarter-finals last season.
Llopis was one of the voices pushing for Madrid to sign Arrizabalaga back in 2018, and he was among the first to speak with him before this loan was completed.
Ancelotti is also delighted with the signing of Arrizabalaga and he will be Madrid’s starting goalkeeper immediately, but he was not the only profile explored late last week. Madrid discussed various options on the market and — although the decision was ultimately taken by the club — consulted with the coaching staff on each candidate.
From those internal discussions, one of the first options that came out was Yassine Bounou. The Morocco international convinced everyone, but Madrid knew he has a contract with Sevilla until 2025 and a buy-out clause of €50million. He was quickly ruled out.
The difficulty in reducing that fee and the fact Bounou will miss part of the coming season owing to his participation in the Africa Cup of Nations, which runs for a month from January 13, complicated things. On Friday afternoon, Jose Castro, Sevilla’s president, denied any links with Madrid: “I reiterate, there is no offer for him.”
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Another of the names talked about early on was David de Gea, who has just left Manchester United after 11 years. Although he was discussed, the free-agent Spain international did not get the call from Madrid, who would have had major problems in agreeing to the 32-year-old’s required salary and length of his contract, especially as rumours suggest he already has received a major offer from Saudi Arabia.
Moreover, neither the player nor the club have good memories of each other after what happened on transfer deadline day in the summer of 2015. De Gea was on the brink of a transfer to the Bernabeu but it fell through with the late delivery of documents just beyond the deadline. However, what happened was interpreted elsewhere as a sign that Madrid ultimately did not have confidence in him.
Before Friday, and despite contacting Arrizabalaga’s people, Madrid were also interested in Giorgi Mamardashvili — or so say sources among his entourage and at his club, Valencia. However, sources at Madrid, who also preferred to speak anonymously as they did not have permission to comment, deny the 22-year-old Georgian had been considered.
Long-time Tottenham goalkeeper and 2018 World Cup-winning France captain Hugo Lloris, who like De Gea is available on a free, was another suggested to the club by one Madrid player’s agent, but the option of the 36-year-old did not convince the board.
Instead, they chose Arrizabalaga — and his loan was all wrapped up in just a couple of days.
(Top photo: Daniel Bartel/ISI Photos/Getty Images)