Real Madrid have reportedly sanctioned the sale of back-up striker Gonzalo Garc\u00eda and Castilla talent C\u00e9sar Palacios to Fulham in a combined deal worth $57.4 million (\u20ac50 million).<\/p>\n
According to The Athletic, Gonzalo is valued at $46.1 million (\u20ac40 million), while Palacios accounts for $11.5 million (\u20ac10 million). Both agreements also contain a 30% sell-on clause.<\/p>\n
The pair are said to be \u201ckeen\u201d on linking up with their former manager in the Premier League, and they would arrive as Fulham\u2019s first two additions of the summer. Swedish forward Jonah Kusi-Asare has also made a permanent move after his loan spell from Bayern Munich last season.<\/p>\n
Interest in Gonzalo had been building across Europe since his breakthrough at the Club World Cup last summer, but Real Madrid were reluctant to let go of the No. 9, a player who drew comparisons with club legend Ra\u00fal.<\/p>\n
Even so, his role became increasingly limited. Alonso and Arbeloa both restricted his minutes last season, and he started only nine La Liga matches. When Kylian Mbapp\u00e9 was injured later in 2025-26, Gonzalo was not even the first choice to step in, with Brahim D\u00edaz instead used up top alongside Vin\u00edcius J\u00fanior.<\/p>\n
Despite the reduced opportunities, the Castilla product still finished with eight goals, including six in La Liga. His movement, finishing and work rate stood out whenever he featured, though those chances were rare, especially without Endrick involved.<\/p>\n
Endrick is now back at the Bernab\u00e9u and wearing the No. 9 after a productive loan at Lyon. He registered eight goals and eight assists in 21 appearances for the French side and is expected to provide cover for Mbapp\u00e9 next season under Jos\u00e9 Mourinho.<\/p>\n
From Real Madrid\u2019s perspective, moving on from Gonzalo while Fulham were prepared to pay $46.1 million is understandable, particularly with reports of Yan Diomande potentially arriving for a club-record $153.8 million (\u20ac135 million).<\/p>\n
Still, the long view may look different. Real Madrid\u2019s attack often lacked a natural centre-forward last season, and in 2026 they scored more than twice in only eight of 31 matches. The side missed a striker capable of attacking crosses and making decisive box runs, leaving the frontline heavily tilted toward Vin\u00edcius Jr on the left and Mbapp\u00e9 in central spaces.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Real Madrid\u2019s Fulham deal for Gonzalo Garc\u00eda and C\u00e9sar Palacios may solve one problem but create another.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":18144,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[230,713],"tags":[1836,1746,1304],"class_list":["post-18145","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-analytics-stats","category-fulham","tag-2026-27-premier-league","tag-alvaro-arbeloa","tag-benching"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18145","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18145"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18145\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18145"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18145"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.weplayfpl.com\/news-articles\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18145"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}