World Sports: Real Madrid can only continue to fulfill Alaba contract for the time being, but cannot obtain competitive value
According to World Sports, Real Madrid can only continue to fulfill its contract with Alaba, but the La Liga giants cannot obtain competitive value.
In just one and a half years, Alaba has changed from Real Madrid's defense leader to the team's fifth central defender, and has become a problem that the club needs to solve urgently. The 33-year-old Austrian central defender transferred from Bayern to replace Ramos in 2021. With his strong adaptability, he became a key player in Ancelotti's double championship in La Liga and Champions League.
However, everything changed on December 17, 2023. Alaba tore the ACL in the Bernabeu vs. Villarreal. Since then, the Austrian international has experienced a seemingly endless hard time that marginalized his role in the White Legion.
After a long 399-day recovery period (longer than expected), Alaba finally returned to the arena on January 19 this year. However, this dream comeback turned into a nightmare because physical problems still bother him. He only participated in 14 games last season, including 5 starts and only 1 of them played the game.
In early February this year, Alaba suffered another injury of muscle injury to the adductor muscle. At the end of April, he suffered a meniscus tear again and had to undergo surgery again. Since then, he has been hanging a high-level battle-free sign. Although he went to the United States with the team, he failed to play in the Club World Cup for Alonso.
During this time, Alaba witnessed Raul Asensio gaining a foothold in the first team, while Real Madrid spent €58 million to introduce Wyson to strengthen the defense line. At the same time, Militon has recovered from the second ACL torn injury and is preparing to play for the team in the new season. In this case, the former Bayern player will start a new journey as the fifth central defender in the upcoming 2025-26 season.
In addition to football-level issues, another problem facing Real Madrid is Alaba's salary. He currently has the third highest salary for the team, with a net income of 22.5 million euros per year, and his contract will be next summer. In the team, only Mbappe (32 million euros) and Vinicius (30 million euros) have higher annual salary than him.
Within the club, people gradually realized that it would be difficult for the 33-year-old Austrian captain to recover from his condition before his severe knee injury. Ideally, Real Madrid hopes to be able to sell him or rent him out, but has not received any offer so far, as it remains uncertain whether he can fully recover to the top-level competitive level.
source:bongda7m