The 5 failed signings of Real Madrid from Valencia
The white team, which will visit the Mestalla stadium for the last time, has shown interest in several players from their opponent this Saturday in recent years.
Latest news on Real Madrid. The white club visits Valencia this Saturday, November 7, at 21:00 hours, at Mestalla, in a match that could be the last league game for the white team at the Valencian stadium. The meeting serves to review several operations that did not come to fruition: David Villa, David Silva, Roberto Fabián Ayala, and José Luis Gayà are among the names that were linked to the Madrid club without ending up wearing white.
Real Madrid and Valencia: the big signings that never materialized
The relationship between both clubs has been marked by frustrated operations for decades. One of the episodes that most affected their relations was the departure of Predrag Mijatović in 1996, when the forward left Valencia to join Real Madrid after paying his buyout clause.
Since then, negotiations for Valencia players have proven complicated. The case of Roberto Fabián Ayala was one of the first examples: in 2003, Real Madrid showed interest in the Argentine center-back, but the operation did not succeed because Valencia did not want to part with him.
Another prominent name is David Silva. In 2007, the then Valencia president, Juan Soler, confirmed that Ramón Calderón had asked about the conditions to sign the canary midfielder. The response was negative, and the player extended his contract with Valencia until 2014, with a buyout clause that rose to 90 million euros.
The case of David Villa was also close to becoming one of the big market moves. The Asturian forward later admitted that Real Madrid had tried to sign him on more than one occasion, but Valencia rejected the proposals. In 2010, Villa ended up signing for Barcelona for a sum close to 40 million euros, according to reports published about that operation.
Gayà, Mendieta, and other frustrated signings of Real Madrid
José Luis Gayà is another Valencia player linked to Real Madrid. The left-back remained at Mestalla despite the interest he generated in the market, and his continuity became another example of the white club's difficulties in signing important players from Valencia.
Before him, Gaizka Mendieta was also on the Madrid radar. However, the midfielder ended up signing for Lazio in 2001. The operation included a clause aimed at preventing the Italian club from transferring him later to Real Madrid, a sign of the distrust that marked relations between the two entities.
There have also been reports about Madrid's interest in Joaquín Sánchez, Rodrigo Moreno, and André Gomes, although these cases did not reach the same level of concreteness as other attempts. It is important to distinguish between acknowledged negotiations and the names that appeared in market reports.
The clearest exception to this trend was Raúl Albiol, who left Valencia to sign for Real Madrid in 2009. The central defender thus became one of the few players to make that direct move between the two clubs in recent decades.
Mestalla, the setting for a farewell with history
The match this Saturday adds a special component to the rivalry. Valencia faces what will be, unless a Copa del Rey match again pits both teams against each other at this stadium, the last league visit of Real Madrid to Mestalla before the move to Nou Mestalla.
The match will allow a revisit of a history of failed negotiations, negative responses, and agreements that never came to fruition. For Real Madrid, signing directly from Valencia has been a complicated task for years; the meeting at Mestalla again brings together two clubs connected by their confrontations as well as by the operations that never materialized.
This is an automatic translation. You can read the original news, Los 5 fichajes frustrados del Real Madrid al Valencia