Jude is ours: 8 June 2023

The Daily Merengue is a place where you can feel free to discuss all things football. Do not be alarmed by the overt RMCF bias. It’s in the name!

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Juuuuuudeeeee!

After months of rumors, finally it’s official: Real Madrid signed Jude Bellingham. This is the official statement by Borussia:

The player Jude Bellingham is about to move from Borussia Dortmund GmbH & Co. KGaA (“BVB”) to Real Madrid C.F. (“Real Madrid”). The parties have reached an agreement on this today.

The contractual details now remain to be agreed and documented. The realization of the transfer is also subject to the proper and timely execution in accordance with the provisions of the FIFA Transfer Matching System (FIFA TMS).

Real Madrid will pay BVB a fixed transfer fee of EUR 103 million upon completion of the transfer. In addition, the payment of variable transfer compensation up to a maximum total amount of around 30% of the amount of the fixed transfer compensation has been agreed.

The variable transfer compensation is dependent on the achievement of certain sporting successes by Real Madrid and/or sporting successes or performance by the player at Real Madrid over the next six seasons.

As a result, management expects a positive minimum effect on the key earnings figures (EBITDA, EBIT) for the 2023/2024 financial year in the order of around EUR 77 million. This amount may increase depending on the occurrence of conditions agreed for the payment of variable transfer compensation.

Due to the opening of the FIFA international transfer window from July 01, 2023 and, among other things, further regulatory association requirements, the transfer business will not fall into the current fiscal year 2022/2023 but into fiscal year 2023/2024.

With the cost of €103M, Bellingham signing is second most expensive in the history of the club, only after Hazard signing (€115M).

Round-up

• Jude Bellingham HERE WE GO! (Fabrizio Romano)

• Dortmund officially announce he’s going Real Madrid — announcement hopefully tomorrow from Real Madrid.

• Lucas Vazquez will STAY. (José Felix Diaz)

• Ancelotti feels Brahim is a loss on Asensio (Mario Cortegana)

• Real Madrid are IN for Pavard (Sky journalist Florian Plettenberg)

• Rodrigo is another option for back-up ST (Desportes Cope journalist Arancha Rodríguez)

I cannot believe the club is willing to repeat the mistake of considering Rodrygo as option for a back-ST. The club priority right now is to get a top #9 and a proper back up.

UCL final half-time speech

The entire half-time speech made by Ancelotti on UCL final vs Liverpool was released as part of the documentary En el corazón de la Decimocuarta. I wasn’t able to find a better link to watch than the following.

If any of you knows the official link for the documentary, please post in the comment section.