Real Madrid and FC Barcelona are both going through an intense summer full of changes. Barcelona, the defending champions coached by Xavi, are coming off an exciting season that culminated in them winning La Liga for the first time since 2019, as the former Barcelona midfielder was able to bring back the winning mentality to the historic side after some difficult years. The Blaugrana were eliminated in Champions League's group stage, and later by Manchester United in the UEFA Europa League playoffs, but winning La Liga was a major step for the comeback at high levels of the Spanish club.
On the other side Real Madrid had a more challenging season but Los Blancos were still able to win the European Supercup, the FIFA Club World Cup and the Copa del Rey, but didn't compete with the historic rivals for the Spanish title and were eliminated by Pep Guardiola's Manchester City in the Champions League semifinals. For most clubs, it would have been a very good season, but Real Madrid is a different team, and you always need to compete to win trophies at the Bernabeu. This is why they are going through some big changes this summer, and are likely aiming for more in the next one.
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Barcelona started to renovate their squad since the return of president Joan Laporta in 2021. The new era under him wasn't easy at all at the beginning, as Barcelona were not able to register the new contract of Lionel Messi, the icon of the club, and had a difficult start under the coach Ronald Koeman with many financial issues due to the previous management. However, things started to improve quite soon when the club appointed club's legend Xavi as the new coach. Slowly, things improved, and the results arrived already in the second part of the season. In his first full season in charge and after the arrival of players like striker Robert Lewandowski propelled Barcelona to the title. It's not surprising to imagine that this is only the beginning of a new cycle under Xavi, as the coach is now expected to sign a new long-term deal with the club in the coming weeks.
Meanwhile, while Carlo Ancelotti's Real Madrid will be definitely remembered in the future as one of the most successful sides in the history of the game, the Italian coach will likely leave the Spanish side in the summer 2024 and will become the new manager of the Brazilian national team and will make this upcoming season his last one as the coach of Real Madrid. At the same time, the club is already thinking ahead and the summer signings are going in this direction.
For example, Real Madrid have already signed Brazilian talent Endrick for the summer of 2024, making him the biggest sale in the history of Brazilian soccer as Palmeiras will receive €35 million, plus €25 million add-ons, and €12 million of extra in taxes for the deal for the 16-year-old. Barcelona answered back to the Endrick deal and signed 19-years old Vitor Roque despite the interest of multiple English clubs. Barcelona will pay around €60 million add-ons included to sign him, and same as Endrick he will also arrive in the summer 2024.
It was also an emotional summer for both Real Madrid and Barcelona fans as they said goodbye to several club's icons. Sergi Busquets and Jordi Alba left Barcelona, while French striker Karim Benzema surprisingly left Madrid to join Al Ittihad this summer, and the two clubs are now working to replace them. Xavi's side signed free agents Ilkay Gundogan and Inigo Martinez after their contracts with Manchester City and Athletic Club expired. Two experienced signings that can definitely help the younger teammates to improve in the European competitions, as Gundogan just won the Treble with Manchester City as captain of the English club.
Real Madrid decided to extend the deals of other key players for one more season, and both Toni Kroos and Luka Modric will stay for another year. Despite these decisions, Real Madrid are working to improve and make the roster younger compared to the past in order to have a good mixture between experienced players and young talents that can improve with their help, before they will leave the club probably next year with Ancelotti. They started this process already last year, but this summer they signed one of the the best talents around Europe as Jude Bellingham joined Real Madrid from Borussia Dortmund for around €103 million, plus add-ons. It will be interesting to see how Ancelotti will integrate Bellingham in his starting midfielders rotations alongside Kroos, Modric, Federico Valverde, Aurelian Tchouameni and potentially Eduardo Camavinga even if he played as a left back in the last part of the past season. After Bellingham, Real Madrid also signed Turkish talent Arda Guler from Fenerbahce for €20 million, left back Fran Garcia from Rayo Vallecano for €5 million and striker Joselu from Espanyol on loan. Also, former AC Milan midfielder Brahim Diaz came back to the Spanish side after his loan deal ended and he' expected to stay after Marco Asensio left for Paris Saint-Germain.
Unlike Barcelona, Real Madrid still need to sign a striker to replace Benzema, even after the arrival of Joselu who replaced Mariano Diaz who left the club this summer as well. The big target is, of course, Kylian Mbappe. However, it won't be an easy deal to make happen. The French superstar has decided to not trigger the option included in his contract with PSG and is set to leave as free agent in the summer 2024.
PSG are definitely not willing to lose him for free and Nasser Al-Khelaifi himself said that Mbappe has to leave now or extend on a new deal with the club. It's not a secret that Mbappe is the big dream of Real Madrid's president Florentino Perez, but the question is if they will be able to wait until the summer 2024 or they will jump into the deal already this summer. It's a poker game between Mbappe, Real Madrid and PSG that is expected to escalate in the coming weeks before the end of the summer transfer business, as it happened in 2021 when at the end of the day Mbappe stayed in Paris. Besides what will happen with Mbappe, Real Madrid already have a competitive roster that will definitely be able to fight with Barcelona for the title race this season, as they signed some talented players for the imminent future, while Xavi's side opted more for experienced signings as of now that can help him to make the next step at European level. What's clear is that, after some years, we finally got the big rivalry between the two Spanish giants back.
