Rayo Vallecano president Raul Martin Presa has confirmed that Fran Garcia will join Real Madrid in the summer amid interest from Premier League challengers Newcastle United, speaking to El Partidazo de COPE.
Much to Presa’s relief, however, Garcia will have to wait until the end of the current campaign before making his move to the Santiago Bernabau.
An injury to regular left-back Ferland Mendy has left Carlo Ancelotti short of cover in the Spanish capital; the versatile Eduardo Camavinga filling in with rather mixed results of late. There was considerably delight in Vallecas, then, when it emerged that Real Madrid were happy to leave Spain U21 international Garcia at his current club until the summer.
“Fran Garcia will go to Real Madrid at the end of this season,” Presa claims. “We have reached an agreement.
“For them, it would have been the best thing on a sporting level (to bring Garcia back now). Real Madrid is a club that acts sportingly, and we have to thank them (for letting us keep him for another few months).”
Newcastle target Fran Garcia is leaving Rayo Vallecano for Real Madrid
23-year-old Garcia has been one of the revelations of the 2022/23 La Liga season. He even set up a goal during Rayo’s thrilling 3-2 defeat to the 14-time European champions before the Qatar World Cup.
Garcia came through the ranks in Real Madrid’s academy. He was on the radar of Newcastle United, according to the Daily Mail, but Real were always in pole position due to a near-£9 million buy-back clause in the full-backs contract.
“He’s a player who came through the youth academy,” Ancelotti admitted last week. “We’re assessing him.”
Newcastle also showed an interest in another of Spain’s most exciting young full-backs; Real Valladolid teenager Ivan Fresneda. Head of recruitment Steve Nickson travelled to the banks of the Mediterranean to watch the 18-year-old in the flesh shortly after Christmas.
Fresneda’s agent, meanwhile, believes he will become one of the biggest sales in Valladolid’s history, admitting that both Arsenal and Borussia Dortmund have shown an interest.
“(Arsenal and Dortmund) are two great clubs, about which we have favourable opinions. They give youngsters opportunities,” says Luis Bardaji, Fresneda’s representative. “There have been around thirty teams who have been interested.
“Fresneda will be at Real Valladolid until the end of the season. We want him to have his feet on the ground. And in other teams, he was not going to have the continuity he needs now.
“Over the weekend, we told Real Valladolid that there was not going to be any offer. That he was not going to leave in the winter market. If one day he has to leave, we would like it to be a historic sale for the club.”
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