Real Madrid did not need to sell a single first-team player this summer to post one of the most eye-catching numbers of the transfer window. According to ONE, the club has already generated €181.5 million from academy departures alone since the market opened — a figure the outlet describes as "incomprehensible" for a squad that graduated relatively few first-teamers this cycle.
The headline sale is Nico Paz, whose move to Como was made permanent for €60 million. The Argentine playmaker spent last season on loan in Italy before Real Madrid cashed in fully, turning a player who never made a senior appearance for the club into one of the biggest cheques the academy has ever produced.
Gonzalo García, the striker who forced his way into Xabi Alonso's plans with a string of impressive substitute displays, is heading to Fulham in a deal worth around €40 million, with Real Madrid reported to have kept a sell-on percentage and a buy-back option should he ever be needed again. His Castilla teammate César Palacios is following him to Craven Cottage in a companion deal worth roughly €10 million.
The rest of the total comes almost entirely from sell-on clauses attached to players Madrid let go years ago at knockdown fees, only to collect again once those clubs cashed in themselves. Víctor Muñoz's move from Osasuna to Liverpool, reported at around €20 million, triggered a clause that sends a large slice back to Valdebebas. Mario Gila's switch from Lazio to AC Milan did the same, earning Real Madrid roughly €15 million from a deal in which the Italian defender never actually wore the first team's shirt.
Álvaro Rodríguez, sold on by Elche to Bournemouth, produced a similar windfall of around €12.5 million to €15 million depending on the final structure of the deal, while Jacobo Ortega's move to Strasbourg added roughly €8 million and Mario Martín's switch to Getafe brought in €3.5 million. Smaller sums from Álex Jiménez and Víctor Valdepeñas rounded out the tally ONE cites.
It is a business model Real Madrid has refined for years: sell young talent early, often for modest fees, but insist on sell-on percentages that pay off handsomely if the player develops elsewhere. Barcelona has built its recent identity around trusting academy graduates like Lamine Yamal in the first team; Madrid, under Florentino Pérez, has instead treated La Fábrica as a financial engine that funds the purchase of the readymade stars the club prefers to field.
Other outlets tracking the same figures suggest the total has kept climbing since ONE's report, with Yahoo Sports citing academy income approaching €196 million once Palacios' move to Fulham is fully processed — and the summer window still has weeks to run. Real Madrid's previous record for academy sales in a single summer, set in 2017, stood at roughly €102 million, a mark this year's total has already smashed several times over.
None of the fees are formally confirmed by Real Madrid itself, and several of the sell-on figures — Gila, Rodríguez and Muñoz in particular — depend on the precise percentage clauses in contracts that are not public, which is why reported totals vary from outlet to outlet. But the broad picture is consistent everywhere it has been reported: this is the most lucrative academy summer in the club's history, and it is not over yet.
