Gonzalo Garcia and Cesar Palacios are moving from Real Madrid to Fulham, where they will meet their former coach Alvaro Arbeloa. The Whites confirmed this on Monday evening.
The pair have signed contracts until 2031 and will cost a combined €50 million. The 22-year-old striker Gonzalo accounts for €40 million, while the 21-year-old midfielder Palacios costs €10 million.
Fulham are reportedly only securing 70 per cent of the transfer rights in each deal, though. That means Real would also benefit financially from any future resale.
Real have made huge sums from structures like this in recent years. The club from the capital alone brought in more than €110 million this summer from sell-on clauses and ultimately used it to finance their own transfer offensive. Denzel Dumfries, Marc Cucurella and Carlos Espi arrived for €100 million. In addition, Real signed Ibrahima Konate and Bernardo Silva on free transfers.
Gonzalo caused a stir at the Club World Cup
Under coach Alvaro Arbeloa at Fulham, Gonzalo and Palacios will reunite with a familiar face. The 43-year-old had already worked with the two home-grown Real players in the youth set-up and in the second half of last season with the first team. However, Arbeloa had to leave after the end of the season, and his successor is Jose Mourinho.
Their chances of regular minutes at Real would have been slim. Gonzalo could not turn his spectacular 2025 Club World Cup, with four goals, into a lasting breakthrough. Last season he mostly came off the bench. Palacios has so far made only seven competitive appearances for Real.
Fulham had reportedly also wanted to lure a third Real player in Franco Mastantuono. At present, however, everything points to a loan move to Fiorentina for the 18-year-old right winger from Argentina. Fulham finished last Premier League season in 11th place and are not involved in any international competition.