Real Madrid are expected to bank nearly $63 million (€54 million) from three Castilla exits, and the logic looks tidy enough on the balance sheet. The uneasy part for Madrid is Gonzalo García, who has already scored for Fulham on debut and then again in the club's 3–0 Carabao Cup win over Wimbledon. He also scored four goals at the Club World Cup and eight more last season for Madrid.

García's fast start at Fulham

The quick start is the reason this story feels different from the other two sales. García has scored in two of his last five league appearances, and his latest league outing carried a 7.5 rating. Those are small samples, but they are the kind of early returns that make a cut-price academy exit look expensive in hindsight.

Amanda Langell's warning on si.com was simple enough: "It’s highly plausible there comes a time in the next few years that the 15-time European champions regret letting the young Spaniard go, especially if he continues to explode in England."

The caveat is that Fulham have taken one win from their last five league matches, so García has not walked into a side on a long run of momentum. Even so, he is the Madrid academy player in this deal who has already translated his form into a new shirt, and that is the part Madrid will keep watching.

The Castilla exits Madrid could live with

The other exits point in a different direction. Amanda Langell wrote that "Realistically, there was no room for Ángel and Palacios at the Bernabéu," and that looks hard to argue with given the squad traffic ahead of them.

Manuel Ángel Morán is 22 and is in London to complete a medical before reuniting with Álvaro Arbeloa. César Palacios made seven first-team appearances and 32 for Castilla last season, scoring 15 goals, and he has already started Fulham's first two Premier League matches of the season.

Madrid's own league form is part of why the sale can still be read as smart business. They have won all five of their most recent league matches, which is a strong enough backdrop to sell from. The club can point to depth and demand, but García's early goals mean the player they parted with cleanest is also the one making the quickest impression at Craven Cottage.

Written by Daniel Hartley with AI-assisted research, cross-checked against 1 outlet. How we work →