After their trophy-less campaign, Los Blancos have been busier than most in preparing for this summer's tournament in the United States
Carlo Ancelotti was adamant: the Club World Cup did not matter. He didn't care for it, and he insisted hat Real Madrid would not take it seriously either. In fact, his Blancos team could even refuse the opportunity to play in the competition.
"FIFA forgets that players and teams will not participate in the new Club World Cup. A single Real Madrid match is worth €20 million and FIFA wants to give us that amount for the entire tournament. Negative. Like us, other clubs will refuse the invitation," the then-Madrid manager said in June 2024.
Within 24 hours, both he and the club themselves had a remarkable change of heart. Suddenly, they were pro-Club World Cup. Ancelotti insisted his comments had been taken out of context, while Madrid put out a defiant statement: "Our club will take part, as planned, in this official competition which we face with pride and with the utmost enthusiasm to once again make our millions of fans all over the world dream of a new title."
Since then, Madrid have been up for this summer's tournament in the United States. However, in recent weeks, their obsession with being crowned world champions has intensified. After their domestic and European seasons crumbled, Madrid turned their focus fully towards retooling for competition, and after bringing in some big names – in the form of both players and managers – Los Blancos have made it clear that they are playing to win.
Getty Images€10m for three games?!
It was football's worst kept secret through the second half of the season that Trent Alexander-Arnold was set to leave Liverpool and join Madrid. However, not even the most hopeful of Reds fan would have believed that they would earn a fee for their impending free agent.
Most assumed that Alexander-Arnold would take a month off before joining Madrid on July 1 at the start of the new football calendar. However, reports surfaced in the days following Alexander-Arnold's confirmation of his Liverpool exit that Los Blancos were keen to negotiate an early release from his contract so as to take advantage of FIFA's pre-Club World Cup transfer window.
Despite that, it still came as something of a surprise when it was confirmed that Madrid had in fact paid up by handing over €10m (£8.5m/$11.5m) to Liverpool for their homegrown right-back. For the Reds, that came as a welcome – and unexpected – boost to their coffers. But for Madrid, it was the first real statement of intent when it came to this summer's tournament.
Alexander-Arnold is an elite talent, and with Dani Carvajal still recovering from the ACL injury he picked up in October, Madrid did not have a fully fit right-back to bring with them to the U.S. They could have waited for Alexander-Arnold to see out the final month of his deal on Merseyside and added him to their squad for the knockout rounds, but Madrid wanted him immediately, and were willing to pay over €3m per potential group-stage appearance to have him from the very start of the competition.
Madrid would surely have got through a group containing Al-Hilal, Red Bull Salzburg and Pachuca without the England international, but Alexander-Arnold will of course make them a more formidable outfit from the jump. His addition should also help new manager Xabi Alonso implement some of his tactical ideas just that little bit earlier. Either way, it sent a signal that Madrid mean business on the pitch this summer.
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There is no other way to spin it: Madrid's defence was bad last year. They spent most of the season with Raul Asencio and Antonio Rudiger as their only fully fit centre-backs, and even then Rudiger was playing on only one healthy knee and had to undergo surgery before the end of the campaign. Over the course of the season, Carvajal, Eder Militao and David Alaba all sustained long-term injuries while Ferland Mendy could never stay fit for more than a couple of months at a time. Madrid were decimated at the back, and it showed.
And so while Alexander-Arnold is an addition to their defensive ranks, it is the arrival of Dean Huijsen that is expected to help shore up that porous backline. In a span of a year, Huijsen went from unwanted at Juventus to Europe's most-wanted following his debut season at Bournemouth. The lanky Spaniard has already shown himself to be a very good centre-back, and has all of the traits required to become a world-class defender. At just 20, he has plenty of scope, and that's why Liverpool and Chelsea were so keen to add him to their respective squads before Madrid made their move and triggered Huijsen's £50m ($68m) release clause.
He was officially unveiled at Santiago Bernabeu on June 9, where club president Florentino Perez hailed him as "one of the great players to emerge in football in recent years." Huijsen will get his chance to prove as much this summer.
Madrid almost added a third fresh face to Alonso's squad, too, after beating Paris Saint-Germain to the signing of highly-rated River Plate teenager Franco Mastantuono, for whom they are paying €40m (£33m/$45m). Madrid wanted the 17-year-old to join them in the States, but River rejected that approach so as to include Mastantuono on their own Club World Cup roster.
Watch every FIFA Club World Cup game free on DAZNStream nowGetty ImagesPlaying through the pain
Perhaps the most revealing move of Madrid's summer when it comes to taking the Club World Cup seriously, though, is the fact that they opted to continue kicking the can that is Jude Bellingham's long-awaited shoulder surgery down the road. The Englansd midfielder first hurt his shoulder in November 2023, when he partially dislocated it against Rayo Vallecano. He missed a handful of games at the time, and it was reported in the Spanish press that he would need an operation. Bellingham, though, played through the pain, and has required heavy strapping on his left shoulder for over a year now.
Bellingham has routinely been advised to undergo surgery, but the business of the club calendar had meant that he hasn't had room to do so. Given the Club World Cup's still debatable status in the global game, this summer felt like the ideal window so that he could be back fit for the start of the 2025-26 campaign and subsequently could start looking ahead to the 2026 World Cup in a pain-free manner.
However, both Madrid and Bellingham have agreed to delay the operation until after the Club World Cup – ensuring that he will be available for the month-long event in America. As a consequence, he will miss the remainder of pre-season, and possibly two months of the new season. It's clearly a risk Madrid are willing to take and highlights where their priorities lie in terms of trophies.
(C)Getty ImagesModric's swansong
And while one Madrid midfielder waits for a much-needed break, another has joined up with the squad when he would have been forgiven for resting up and preparing for the next chapter in his storied career.
When Luka Modric left the Bernabeu pitch teary-eyed in May, it was assumed that he had played his last game for Madrid. It seemed the perfect way to go, waling off the pitch at that great cathedral of football and conclude his brilliant Blancos career on home soil. Apparently not.
While free-agent-to-be Modric is close to securing a move to AC Milan to help fill the gaping hole left by the departure of Tijjani Reijnders to Manchester City, Modric is sticking with Madrid for the Club World Cup. Given that he only played sparingly over the course of the campaign and that his ageing legs might not be able to offer much in the searing American heat, having Modric be part of a squad that Alonso is attempting to mould in his own image feels unnecessary. But zoom out, and it's the kind of move that makes sense for a Madrid who are intent of winning.
Modric brings veteran experience. With Toni Kroos gone and with an otherwise fairly young spine, Alonso could do with someone he trusts in the set up to help implement his initial ideas. He and Modric did, after all, used to be Madrid team-mates, and so having someone he can trust, if only for a few weeks, could prove vital in the long run.