What to Expect From Barcelona and Real Madrid in the 2026 Summer Transfer Window | OneFootball

Another club season has come to a close. While the World Cup commences in less than a week, club football never really sleeps. While sports’ most popular event always draws billions of eyes from people all over the globe, it presents a unique opportunity in the transfer market.

During the tournament, negotiations are always trickier due to players’ commitments to their nations, but we see big transfers happen. During the 2018 World Cup, for instance, Portugal’s star man Cristiano Ronaldo was in the heat of negotiations with Juventus during the tournament, with his transfer officially confirmed a week and a half after his Round of 16 exit to Uruguay.

In the 2014 World Cup, Luis Suarez confirmed his transfer to Barcelona during the 2014 World Cup, a little under three weeks after his infamous bite on Giorgio Chiellini and subsequent four-month ban.

The World Cup also represents a unique opportunity for clubs to buy some of the tournament’s hottest young stars. An example, also from 2014, Real Madrid would bring in 23-year-old James Rodriguez for 75 million after a breakout tournament in which he would score in all of Colombia’s games, an overall total of six, bookmarked with an iconic Round of 16 goal against Uruguay that would win Goal of the Tournament, the Golden Boot, and Team of the Tournament honours.

With that in mind, let’s give a cursory overview of what to expect from La Liga’s giants, Barcelona and Real Madrid, ahead of what is sure to be an incredibly busy summer transfer window. We will break down all the links, rumours, confirmed signings, and press conferences to give you an understanding of just what we could see from them between now and August.

BARCELONA

After successfully defending their La Liga crown for the first time since 2019, as well as once again beating Real Madrid in the Supercopa final, premature exits in the Copa del Rey and Champions League to Atlético Madrid will be sure to leave a bitter taste in the mouths of Hansi Flick’s men.

Their first attempted remedy is the confirmed signing of Anthony Gordon from Newcastle for an initial 70 million-euro sum, which could rise to 80 million with add-ons. Despite the poor production from a winger in terms of open play Premier League goals, Gordon claimed joint-third in the Champions League goal charts at ten, tied with Julian Alvarez and Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, both of whom went multiple rounds further in the competition.

The 25-year-old also provides an attractive profile for modern, analytics-driven football, and was wanted by both Bayern Munich and Liverpool before his Barca move. His playing style has shades of players like Raphinha and Luis Diaz, wingers who still fit the pace and dribbling model but also rely more on their pinpoint pass accuracy than typical wingers, and is the reason why Gordon was signed over a flashier, quicker (and likely less expensive) winger such as Rafael Leao.

Ultimately, the Anthony Gordon signing is about giving Barcelona more attacking depth, while also signing a player with the profile and the system to develop into a world-class winger as players like Raphinha near their thirties.

However, if you think that Gordon is the highlight of Barcelona’s spending this summer, you’re sorely mistaken. Barcelona have already commenced the saga that is sure to define their summer, in their pursuit of Atlético Madrid’s Julian Alvarez.

Despite being just 26, Julian Alvarez already has the experience of a player ten years his senior, and provides a seemingly near-perfect fit into Barcelona’s striker role. Alvarez’s passing numbers are elite for a striker, and he possesses a signature venomous finish that Flick’s side has seen themselves the victim of numerous times since his move to Atleti in 2024.

However, Barcelona’s fractured relationship with Los Colchoneros will significantly complicate this move. For years, Atlético Madrid have been La Liga’s bridesmaids, forced to watch on as the Clasico teams compete for every trophy in Spain, always good enough to comfortably best the rest of La Liga, but never good enough to ever properly challenge the duopoly. This leaves Atleti in a position where they would be incredibly hesitant to sell anyone to either of the top two, let alone their undoubted best player.

With longtime leader Antoine Griezmann off to sunny Orlando and Diego Simeone’s days at the club reportedly running down, a potential Julian Alvarez departure would deepen their identity crisis as they search for their new leaders of the future. All of this means that Barcelona needs to make a transfer incredibly worth their while. And so far, Atleti is refusing to budge.

The most likely situation in which Atlético’s star man moves is a situation in which he not only demands to leave, but demands a move to Barca and Barca alone. After that, with the help of Diego Simeone, who famously doesn’t want to keep players who aren’t committed to his system, Los Colchoneros may finally be more open for negotiations.

The La Liga Champions have, according to reports, set out to complete the transfer business of this summer and next, and thus are also looking for a centre-back this window, following the necessity of heavily playing names like Gerard Martin and Eric Garcia at the position in 2025/26.

Deco was reportedly trying to chase Inter’s Alessandro Bastoni, but the deal broke down in early May. That leads them to names like Man City’s Josko Gvardiol, Real Betis’ Natan, and RB Leipzig’s Castello Lukeba, but a deal isn’t expected to progress much until after their striker search has concluded.

The last bit of business that the Blaugrana are looking to make is the signing of Man City’s Bernardo Silva on a free. The 31-year-old, who will turn 32 just before the start of La Liga in August has been a Barcelona target for years, becoming modern Barcelona’s version of the Marco Verratti links that plagued the club every summer in the late 2010s.

The Blaugrana are reportedly closer than ever to signing the Portuguese midfielder. After confirming his departure from Manchester City at the expiry of his contract, Silva has, according to reports, chosen Barcelona over fellow interested side Atlético Madrid and will finally join the club he’s been linked to for so long. The move is expected to be completed after the World Cup.

In conclusion, Barcelona’s incomings this summer could look like this;

REAL MADRID

Now, switching gears, we move to Real Madrid. Following a trophyless first two seasons of the Kylian Mbappe era, Los Blancos have turned to their fourth different manager in those two years, an almost surreal return of the Special One himself, Jose Mourinho.

In his first spell, Mourinho spent three years at Real Madrid between 2010 and 2013, and despite only winning one La Liga, one Copa del Rey, and one Supercopa in his time at the club, kickstarted an epic rivalry with Barcelona boss Pep Guardiola, and revolutionised the squad from a disjointed group coming off the first failed Galacticos era to a hungry pack, led by prime Cristiano Ronaldo, that would win four Champions Leagues in the five years following his departure.

Mourinho comes back, 16 years later, to take charge of a similarly disjointed group. And, if reports are to be true, his first summer back is set to be one of his craziest yet.

Madrid started their summer big after sealing two signings out of nowhere this past Tuesday as of the time of writing. The first is being able to bring over Ibrahima Konate for free after his decision to leave Liverpool this summer. It’s certainly a risky move. Konate has been known for making mistakes in England, but for free, Los Blancos have to take a crack at it.

The second signing is that of Dutch fullback Denzel Dumfries. The 2025 Ballon D’Or Top 30 nominee is no stranger to the big moment, having played in two Champions League finals. Dumfries has also got under the skin of many Barcelona fans, controversially having a handball in the box not called in a crucial Champions League match in 2022, as well as scoring twice and assisting once in Barca and Inter’s 3-3 draw in 2025 before assisting another two at the San Siro.

The common theme between these two is the physicality, with Jose Mourinho looking to introduce a new level of physical intensity on Real Madrid’s opponents. However, there is one more signing, a rumour from Florentino Perez himself, on a signing that could be the biggest in Real Madrid’s history.

Real Madrid is going through a presidential election, called by Florentino Perez last month in his end-of-season press conference with the media. For the first time in years, Perez now has to contend with another opponent for the role of Real Madrid’s president, an opponent by the name of Enrique Riquelme. Riquelme himself has made major promises, such as signing Erling Haaland and getting Jurgen Klopp as manager, but the camps of both have denied such links.

Perez, on the other hand, came out in another press conference on Thursday, revealing that he has a “mystery galactico” that, the day after elections take place, he will make a Madrid-record 150 million euro bid for. While Perez said in his interview that the player was either a forward or midfielder, and not in the Premier League, leading many to believe that the player is Vitinha or Joao Neves, reports came the next day from Fabrizio Romano himself confirming who the player is.

Michael Olise.

Yes, the same Michael Olise who just lit the world on fire with Bayern Munich, is now in the sights of Real Madrid. After 36 goal contributions in 32 Bundesliga games and assisting 35 times in all competitions since the end of 2024/25, Olise is the target of one of the most ambitious moves of the past decade.

At just 24, Olise likely still has at least 7-8 world-class seasons left in the tank, and would be a game-changer at the Bernabeu, creating one of the most skilled front fours in football history – Vini, Mbappe, Bellingham, Olise. This could be a signing potentially on par with the one of Cristiano Ronaldo in 2009 in terms of spending and hype. Don’t be mistaken. This wouldn’t be the biggest transfer of the summer. This would be the biggest transfer of the generation.

Bayern has to have the convincing of a lifetime to pull this off. Olise is arguably the main face of a project that just took PSG to ten rounds and is looking like a top three team in the world. Furthermore, the Frenchman is still just 24 and has a contract until 2029 that Bayern will surely be looking to extend soon. Olise has shown no discontent in Germany and will also need some major convincing, before then needing to further convince Bayern to sell.

If this transfer is to happen, my guess is that it would be around the 200 million euro mark, a figure that would likely prevent Real from signing any other players besides Konate and Dumfries. Perez also isn’t ruling out using the same 150 million sum on Khvicha Kvaratskhelia, but the same issues arise in the signing of the newly-crowned Champions League player of the season.

Dont forget the bringing back of Nico Paz, which Real Madrid are still aiming to do this summer for an immense bargain of less than 10 million euros on his buy-back fee.

All in all, Real Madrid’s crazy window could look like:

It looks like another summer of nonstop drama is ahead of us for Spain’s biggest clubs, but for now, it’s World Cup season, and let us football fans put aside the action of club football for a while and marvel at the biggest event in world sports.