Federico Valverde is set to start against Arsenal for Real Madrid on Tuesday night, but the midfielder almost joined the Gunners a decade earlier.
As many may already be aware, Real Madrid’s Federico Valverde spent time on a trial with Arsenal before he joined his current club. It’s no secret, with the player himself confirming the story many years ago.
Yet it wasn’t completely clear why things had fallen apart, with Arsenal clearly keen to make the signing after Valverde’s successful trial period.
Dick Law explains to The Athletic that the primary problems were the transfer fee and the rules around non-EU nationals playing in England at that time.
“For a non-first team player [the €6m asking price] seemed a little steep, but we were talking to them,” Law said.
“The fundamental problem with our proposal was that we couldn’t bring Valverde directly to Arsenal. He was a non-EU national and didn’t have enough international points to qualify for a work permit.
“Our proposal to the family was that we would find a club, usually in Spain, where he could develop. We had done that in the past with success.
“So he would become an Arsenal player, but go on loan to a Spanish club. That wasn’t as immediately attractive as immediately becoming a Real Madrid player.”
Ironically, Valverde ended up going out on loan to Spanish club Deportivo de La Coruna after joining Real Madrid, a similar path to the one he would have taken with Arsenal.
In the time between Arsenal’s rejected offer and Real Madrid’s eventual deal, Valverde had impressed by scoring seven goals for Uruguay at the South American u17 Championship.
That was enough for Real to decide he was worth an initial fee of €5m rising to €9m, even more than Arsenal were initially being quoted.
No one at Valverde’s current club will be complaining about that fee now, with the player having hundreds of appearances under his belt in Madrid, and more years to come at the top level. It’s another case of ‘what could have been’ for Arsenal.