5 former Real Madrid youngsters with active buy-back clauses in their contracts
Current AC Milan, Tottenham and Como stars are among the former Real Madrid youngsters with buy-back clauses in their contracts.
While Real Madrid have a good reputation for developing young players, not all of them make the grade at the Santiago Bernabeu. However, in order to protect themselves when selling some of their prized youngsters, they include a buy-back clause in their contract.
We’ve taken a closer look at some of their former players and have found five of them with an active buy-back clause.
Nico Paz
Real Madrid offloaded Paz in the summer for a fee of around £5million when Como came calling.
However, Los Blancos were smart enough to include a 50% sell-on clause in the deal, along with a buy-back option that can be triggered in the summer.
Under the management of Cesc Fabregas at Como, Paz has gone from strength to strength. The dynamic attacking midfielder has already produced eight goal contributions in Serie A and is currently averaging a goal or assist every 183.9 minutes.
Given his eye-catching form, it’s no wonder that plenty of top European sides have started to take notice of the youngster.
According to reports in Italy, Inter are ‘crazy’ about Paz, although they will likely have to negotiate with Real Madrid in the summer as the Spanish giants have been tipped to active their buy-back clause.
Madrid will only have to pay £7.5million to bring Paz back to Spain – a snip of his current market value.
Miguel Gutierrez
Another youngster Madrid could consider re-signing is Gutierrez, who’s been developing well since he joined Girona in 2022.
The dynamic left-back only made 10 senior appearances for Madrid, but the club was well aware of his lofty potential when they decided to let him go.
As a result, the club inserted a buy-back clause into his deal with Girona, along with a lofty 50% sell-on clause.
The 23-year-old has been in fine form of late, with 14 goal contributions in La Liga over the last 18 months.
According to our friends at TeamTalk, Manchester United have taken notice of the 23-year-old who is now a ‘concrete’ target for Ruben Amorim.
Even if Madrid don’t decide to re-sign Gutierrez themselves, they will be due a large sum of money thanks to the 50% sell-on clause in his contract.
Alex Jimenez
Jimenez never made a senior appearance for Real Madrid, but the club did insert a buy-back option in his deal when selling him to AC Milan.
The youngster initially joined the Italian side on loan for the 2023-24 season, before the move was then made permanent the following season.
In total, the 19-year-old has made 13 senior appearances for Milan, but he’s predominately played for their U23 side in Serie C this season.
Madrid have the option to re-sign him for £7.5million in 2025, but that figure will rise to £10million if triggered in 2026.
However, according to reports in Italy, Milan are keen to renegotiate the terms of Jimenez’s contract as they would like to remove Real Madrid’s option of re-signing him. Watch this space.
READ NEXT: Comparing Kylian Mbappe’s record at Real Madrid after 30 matches with Cristiano Ronaldo’s
TRY A QUIZ: Can you name every player to wear the No. 9 shirt for Real Madrid since 1992?
Sergio Reguilon
After selling the full-back to Spurs in 2020, Real Madrid inserted a buy-back clause worth a reported £27.5million.
Despite playing a prominent role during his first two season in North London, Reguilon has since fallen down the pecking order and he’s spent the majority of the last four years out on loan.
Following loan spells with Atletico Madrid, Manchester United and Brentford, he’s now back at Tottenham, although he’s only made five appearances this season.
We can’t see Real Madrid coming back in for him anytime soon.
READ: 9 forgotten Real Madrid academy graduates who became cult heroes elsewhere
Javi Sanchez
Sanchez joined the Madrid academy aged eight and he went onto make five senior appearances for the club before he was sold in 2020.
While the Spanish centre-half never quite made the grade at the Santiago Bernabeu, he has done well for himself since joining Real Valladolid.
The 27-year-old has racked up over 100 appearances for the La Liga side who he now captains.
Despite Madrid inserting a buy-back clause into his deal with Valladolid, they’ve never been close to triggering that option.