Bournemouth defender and Arsenal target Dean Huijsen is joining Real Madrid, with the club officially announcing his transfer.
Fabrizio Romano reported on Friday that Real Madrid had agreed all the details of a deal to sign Dean Huijsen, with the player undergoing a medical that night with the intention of signing a five-year deal to 2030 afterwards.
Real Madrid will pay £50m for the transfer, as per the terms of Huijsen’s release clause at Bournemouth. Both the club and incoming manager Xabi Alonso were very keen to bring him in.
Sky Sports News then confirmed that Huijsen has formally put pen to paper on his contract, meaning the move can be officially ratified as soon as the transfer window opens. In the meantime, Real Madrid have announced the move themselves.
There’s a special transfer window at the start of June to allow players to make moves ahead of the Club World Cup, and Huijsen will be one of those early movers.
Sky report that the 20-year-old will now be available for the new expanded competition, which is likely part of the reason why Real Madrid were so keen to get the deal done quickly.
Arsenal were one of the other clubs interested in Huijsen, along with Liverpool, Chelsea, and pretty much every other Premier League team. But whilst it’s a shame to miss out, there are some upsides to the player joining Real Madrid.
For a start, at least Huijsen hasn’t joined a Premier League rival. On top of that, Real Madrid’s £50m spend on the Bournemouth centre-back this summer makes it a lot less likely they’ll make a serious attempt to sign William Saliba in the upcoming window.
That will give Arsenal time to continue negotiating a new contract for Saliba in north London, potentially taking him off the market for many future windows as well. That task is up to sporting director Andrea Berta to complete now.