€21 million player claims he was Real Madrid’s first-choice

Real Madrid are struggling with fitness problems again this season much like the last one. There have already been a number of injuries to key players in the team and many believe the campaign might potentially be set up for failure already. Los Blancos already had a bit of a thin squad to begin with and the expanding injury list has just made things worse.

One of the biggest injuries Real Madrid suffered early on was Thibaut Courtois tearing his ACL just days before the start of the 2023/24 season. The nature of such a serious injury led to the club changing their summer transfer plans.

Real Madrid already had Andriy Lunin but they ended up signing Kepa Arrizabalaga on loan from Chelsea for the season. The Spaniard has been placed as the number one between the posts since arriving.

But it looks like Kepa might not have been Real Madrid’s first pick to replace Courtois. Instead, it was Yassine Bounou, more popularly known as Bono.

€21 million player claims he was Real Madrid’s first-choice

As reported by 90min, Bono said on radio station Canal Sur:

"“[I was] the first option [for Madrid]. That’s what I understand.“Afterwards, the board analysed the situation, saw that I could go to the Africa Cup and miss a lot of games in an important month for Real Madrid and it wasn’t possible. In addition, they had other options that could manage at the transfer level that suited them better.“The African Cup has had a lot of influence on this market, both for me and for Youssef [En-Nesyri].”"

With Bono not arriving, the club decided to turn their attention to Kepa, bringing in the long-time Chelsea goalkeeper on a season-long loan. The Spaniard was close to a move to Bayern Munich before heading for Santiago Bernabeu instead.

Kepa has settled in well so far having started in goal against Celta Vigo and Getafe, conceding just one goal in his two matches till now for Real Madrid. These are still early days for him at Real Madrid though and let’s see how he does in the long run. If he is able to prove himself, there might be a possibility that he will be signed on a permanent basis from Chelsea when his loan deal is over.