Will Real Madrid lose their captain? Nacho is headed to Saudi Arabia, but he’s unlikely to play with Benzema again

Real Madrid are very likely to lose their legend, their icon, their captain. Nacho is heading from Santiago Bernabeu to abroad, specifically to Saudi Arabia. The closest team to signing him at the moment is Al-Qadsiah.

He’s not the biggest star, nor the best scorer or assistant. But he is an important figure in the Real Madrid cabinet and, after all these years, an icon. And last but not least, Nacho Fernández is currently the captain of the royal club.

He broke into Real’s A-team in 2012, having so far been loyal only to this great Spanish club.

He has played a total of 364 competitive matches for the White Ballet, scoring 16 goals and assisting 10 others as a stopper. With Real he won the Champions League six times, the league title four times, the local cup twice and the Club World Cup five times.

In short, a career like thunder. But after 30 June, his and Real’s paths could diverge. Nacho is under contract with Real until the end of this month and according to the latest reports, his transfer to Saudi Arabia is imminent.

As reported by Football Espaňa, Nacho has recently been in talks with Al-Ittihad, where former teammate Karim Benzema is currently based. However, there is now talk of another club competing in the Saudi Pro League.

Where will Nacho sign?

Thirty-four-year-old Nacho has more or less agreed terms of a contract with Al-Ittihad. However, as the Saudi Public Investment Fund (PIF) has not yet set the budgets of the government-backed clubs (Al-Ittihad, Al-Hilal, Al-Nassr and Al-Ahli), he could not sign the deal yet.

Negotiations with Al-Ittihad have thus already cooled before the Euro. And now the French newspaper L’Equipe has come out with the news that Nacho is very likely to join Al-Qadsiah.

That’s a team owned by the oil company Aramco, which incidentally is the title sponsor of Aston Martin in Formula 1. So Al-Qadsiah does not need budget approval for exactly this reason. It is also the reason why this organisation is the closest to making a profit for the Real Madrid icon.

Source: L’Equipe, Football Espaňa, X – Fabrizio Romano, Transfermarkt