How Real Madrid missed out on a future Manchester City superstar

Earlier this year, we learned that Real Madrid had the opportunity to sign Jack Grealish, but they decided not to. Grealish would end up making the expected transfer to Manchester City all along, while Los Blancos spared the expense in order to save up for Kylian Mbappe. While Real ultimately ended up signing midfielder Eduardo Camavinga to a bargain deal, they still have a chance to sign Mbappe for free in 2022. In fact, they are fully expected to do this.

But Grealish isn’t the only ultra-talented young attacker at City whom Real had a chance to sign but missed out on. In fact, an even younger and more affordable winger had a real chance of moving to Los Blancos after years of being monitored by Florentino Perez and Co.

In a recent article for AS, Sergio Santos Chozas details the four times Real Madrid came close to signing Ferran Torres throughout his career. The young man who once dazzled against Real in 2019-2020 was available in 2020 amidst Valencia’s serious financial troubles, and Los Blancos were in desperate need of a right winger.

But Real were busy making sales and pinching every penny during the pandemic, with Mbappe in the back of their minds. So instead of offering a transfer fee, they reportedly asked Torres to join them for free, meaning he would have to spend the 2020-2021 season with an uncompetitive Valencia before finally making the move to the Santiago Bernabeu.

Ferran Torres will have a great career

As you know, Torres was not interested in that. Instead, Manchester City took advantage, paying a measily 23 million euros for an excellent young winger. Real did not want to spend any money, and there is some logic there. But by taking this stance, they missed out on one of the building blocks of the Spanish national team and a potential solution to their still-lingering right wing problem.

Torres is off to a great start to life with Manchester City. He scored seven goals with two assists in his debut Premier League campaign and is already at three goal contributions this season. He’s also been great for Spain.

As if to foreshadow this success, Torres took the same number City legend David Silva donned. Silva, of course, was also a star at Valencia before making the move to the Premier League.

Real Madrid have plenty of young talent, and they don’t always land every target they want. Torres will likely go down in history as one of those players who got away from Perez and Madrid, and City took full advantage of the circumstances. He will write a great chapter there.