Real unable to recall Marcos Llorente early from Alavés loan

Real Madrid will be unable to bring Marcos Llorente back from his loan spell at Alavés early due to contractual restrictions. In the deal between the clubs it was stated that Llorente will spend the whole season with the Basque side and return to Valdebebas next June. However, Real are planning to open talks with Alavés in January to recover the midfielder.

Casemiro cover

Zinedine Zidane mentioned the 21-year-old in his press conference before the match against Dortmund: “Llorente can play in Casemiro’s position but we decided it would be better for him to go out on loan and play 30 games in Primera.”

The Brazilian defensive midfielder is out of action with a broken fibula and will miss most of the rest of the year and Zidane is keen to bring Llorente back to the Bernabéu to cover for any further enforced absences. Real believe they may be able to persuade Alavés to release the midfielder if they are compensated in some way.

Mariano loan deal sweetener

The main stumbling block is that Real will not be able to register Llorente if a fee is involved due to the Fifa transfer ban imposed on the club. Another loan deal is the obvious answer and offering Mariano, who Alavés asked about in the summer, could tempt the Basques to do business.

Transfer ban

The other problem is that if the Court of Arbitration for Sport upholds the ban, players out on loan cannot be registered by Real until January 2018, although the club hopes that the ban will be reduced from two transfer windows to one.