Real Madrid doesn’t like losing players for cheap. Because of the club’s massive history in world football and its financial muscle, the players Los Blancos bring in are meant to be world-class. Apart from Real's huge wage bill and transfer budget, the amazing part of player contracts at the club are the release clauses, and young players like Brahim Diaz are no exception.
For example, Marco Asensio’s release clause with the club is valued at $801 million. Isco’s is the same. For some ungodly reason, Karim Benzema’s release clause is roughly $1.14 billion dollars. This year’s Ballon d’Or Winner, Luka Modric, has a release clause that is half the value of Benzema’s, but is nonetheless worth almost double that of Neymar’s release clause when he was at Barcelona.
Yesterday, Real Madrid made a new signing from Manchester City: Brahim Diaz. Madrid paid $19 million for him, and it’s obvious that Brahim wanted to leave England, regardless of whether it was lack of game time or home-sickness.
Brahim is certainly talented, and his signing is a statement of intent for the future of the club. Players like Brahim, Vinicius Jr., Odriozola, Asensio and Llorente will be the face of the club in the coming years — that is if they stay. For Brahim, staying at Madrid seems like a given, especially with the release clause he now has.
Right now, Diaz’s release clause is valued at $858 million. More than Asensio, Isco, Kroos, Modric and even Real's LaLiga kryptonite, Lionel Messi. Messi, oddly enough, has the same release clause as Asensio. After PSG paid Barcelona’s $254 million release clause for Neymar, they upped the clause for their superstar.
Brahim Diaz vs Real Madrid (preseason)
Scored a brilliant wondergoal after dribbling past 3 players. An incredible talent who can use both feet strongly. Excited for this transfer, let’s see what he can do. pic.twitter.com/WypUx9bQCN— - (@bhavinho) January 6, 2019
Still, Brahim, a 19-year-old prodigy, has a higher release clause than Lionel Messi and that’s a norm created by Real. There could be a few reasons for this: inflation driving the prices of players up in the future, or Messi’s age (31), as he could retire in the next five years.
While release clauses mean nothing in the way of transfer market value for a player, they point to how much a club wants to keep them. Brahim is unquestionably talented, and his release clause points to just how good he could be in the future.
Madrid wants the world’s best players, and after offloading Ronaldo to Juventus, the club’s talent cycle begins again. To keep that talent, Madrid offers contracts to very talented players with very high release clauses, like most big clubs do. The difference with Madrid and in Brahim's case, his release clause is higher than one of the world’s very best players.