Real Madrid star could have joined La Liga rivals over the summer | OneFootball

A member of the midfield ranks at Real Madrid was afforded the opportunity to join one of the club’s La Liga rivals over the summer.

That’s according to Defensa Central, who point towards Dani Ceballos as the player in question.

Midfielder Ceballos was for his part of course hotly tipped for a departure from Real Madrid over the summer.

At one point, in fact, as much appeared to be all but certain, after Los Blancos agreed on the terms of a deal with French outfit Olympique Marseille.

In the end, however, Ceballos pulled the plug on the operation at the last minute.

And yet, as alluded to above, Marseille were not the only high-profile club to have expressed an interest in bringing the former Arsenal man in with a view to the 2025/26 campaign.

As per a report from Defensa Central, so too did Villarreal:

‘Villarreal expressed interest in signing Ceballos. They saw him as an important player to improve their midfield and were willing to put up the 15 million euros that Madrid was demanding for his sale.’

The 29-year-old made clear to all Spanish clubs early in the window, though, that the only rival La Liga outfit whom he would consider joining was Real Betis.

Ceballos will now face off against his summer suitors at Villarreal in a league clash on Saturday evening.

Conor Laird – GSFN