Open Thread: March 19, 2021

The Open Thread/Daily Merengue is a place where you can discuss anything and everything related to football. Feel free to discuss the topics presented here, or start your very own discussions! The Open thread will be posted every day by one of the mods: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, YoSnail, Ezek Ix or NeRObutBlanco.

The UCL quarter-final draw approaches

Real Madrid’s official twitter has posted a contest where fans can guess our opponents and win home and training jerseys. It just requires a Facebook account to register. Seems like a pretty good idea to give it a shot.

Real Madrid taking a look at Jorge de Frutos

Jose Felix Diaz of MARCA reports that the 24 year old winger is under consideration as a replacement for Lucas Vazquez, whose contract is winding down to its final months.

De Frutos came through Real Madrid’s youth system and was sold to Levante last summer, but Los Blancos retained 50 percent of his rights while also having a right of first refusal.

The club’s directors are very clear that the 24-year-old is the ideal replacement for Lucas, with his performances at Levante even catching the eye of Spain boss Luis Enrique, although he has not yet been called up to La Roja’s squad.

Should De Frutos return to Real Madrid, he would be following a similar path to Lucas, who himself came back to the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu after impressing at Espanyol.

De Frutos took his first steps as a professional with Rayo Majadahonda before moving to Castilla, where he played one season with Real Madrid’s B team.

Our own Kiyan Sobhani and Lucas Navarrete discussed the topic in their patron’s questions segment:

Further, Luis Sancho de Rosa of AS notes that this deal would be financially sensible for both Real Madrid and Levante:

De Frutos release clause set at €30m but Madrid have purchase option

Levante need to raise €16m before 30 June to balance the books and De Frutos is one of the club’s most valuable assets with a clause of €30m written into his deal, which runs until 2025.

How does one replace Toni Kroos?

Real Madrid’s German sniper is 30 years old and still performing on the top level. However, it is at this stage a logical question: How to fill the void he will leave in midfield when he eventually retires? Kiyan and Lucas devoted a segment of their patron’s questions to the subject:

How a tax strategy could make Ronaldo’s return a real possibility

MARCA has a piece in their Transfer Market section which discusses the key question of the high taxes CR7 would face on his image rights profits if he ever returned to Spain.

The only way Cristiano would avoid paying such high taxes in Spain would be in the event he reaches an agreement to sign for Real Madrid on a one-year deal.

“If Cristiano signed for Real Madrid for one season, he would be taxed as a non-resident, he would not pay for image rights [he would save 20 million euros] and he would only pay 19 percent of personal income tax,” argues Roca.

In this event, Cristiano should leave Spain before June 30, 2022, in order to be no longer considered as a Spanish resident. Otherwise, the tax rate would multiply.