Real Madrid: Avoiding option to buy in Brahim Diaz loan was crucial

Real Madrid will loan a future star in Brahim Diaz to Milan, but, thankfully, he can come right back to the Santiago Bernabeu.

There are two types of players who will leave Real Madrid in the summer 2020 transfer window. The first group of players are veterans who are no longer key to Zinedine Zidane’s plans, such as Gareth Bale and James Rodriguez. They carry high salaries and will ideally be sold.

Brahim Diaz falls into the second group of players. These are young, rising stars who can be great players for Los Blancos one day, but they need playing time in 2020-2021 and wouldn’t get enough of it at Real. So, they must either be loaned or have a percentage of their rights sold. Takefusa Kubo has already been loaned to Villarreal, and Oscar Rodriguez has officially joined Sevilla. 

Real Madrid have been trying to loan Brahim Diaz for the past two transfer windows. Heading into 2019-2020, they knew Brahim wouldn’t be able to get much playing time at forward, and he ended up playing a mere 60 minutes in six La Liga appearances off the bench.Brahim worked hard and impressed Zinedine Zidane with his desire, but he only had a lone Copa del Rey goal to show for his efforts.

Los Blancos knew they had to loan out Brahim for the 2020-2021 season, and they have decided to send him to Milan.

Brahim Diaz could blossom at Milan

The Serie A club used to be one of European football’s giants, even near the level of Madrid. But they have fallen on hard times since and must ascend. They saw Brahim as a young forward who could help them in the coming years, asking Los Blancos for an option to buy.

Thankfully, Real Madrid refused, so Milan had to settle on a. one-year loan deal for the impressive 21-year-old, who will join Ante Rebic in the new-look Rossoneri attack.

This loan agreement had to take place, because Brahim needs to be a starter in 2020-2021 at this stage of his development. He’s ready to take on that responsibility, whereas at Real, he would have been behind players like Rodrygo Goes, Vinicius Junior, and Marco Asensio.

At Milan, Brahim can be a star, primed to return to Los Blancos one year later. It was crucial for Real to avoid placing an option to buy in the deal for Milan, because the Serie A club could have signed the two-footed forward at an absolute bargain price.

Milan purchasing Brahim would have been disastrous for Real Madrid

Imagine a scenario where Brahim was Milan’s best player and Serie A’s breakout star in 2020-2021, leading Milan to the cusp of a Champions League qualification. And then Milan purchased him at the end of the loan for 20 million euros.

Disaster for Real Madrid, right? A lot worse than losing Theo Hernandez at left back, since Brahim would have been a sure-fire piece of the puzzle for Los Merengues under that scenario.

Surely, Milan pushed and pushed, but thankfully for Madridistas, Florentino Perez and the club did not relent. Brahim still has a long-term future at Real Madrid.