Real Madrid have reached an agreement with Liverpool to sign Trent Alexander-Arnold early — enabling the right-back to be available for their entire Club World Cup campaign.
The Spanish club will pay €10million (£8.4m; $11.4m) in a single payment for Alexander-Arnold, with the deal worth even more to Liverpool as they will no longer cover the remaining salary and bonuses he is owed.
The 26-year-old will sign a six-year contract with his new side.
The deal was agreed on Monday but was delayed after a man drove into a crowd during Liverpool’s title celebrations in the city, with 79 people injured following the incident.
Alexander-Arnold was scheduled to join the Spanish giants as a free agent after his terms at Anfield expire on June 30. That would have seen him miss Madrid’s three group-stage fixtures at the Club World Cup in the United States.
The 15-time European champions contacted Liverpool to express an interest in Alexander-Arnold being released sooner and talks ensued to find a solution. Eventually, a compromise was struck and the England international will now move with immediate effect.
In October, FIFA approved a proposal that would allow national associations the option to create an “exceptional registration window” from June 1 to June 10 so teams could register new players ahead of the Club World Cup.
Had Madrid waited until the end of Alexander-Arnold’s Liverpool contract on June 30 to sign him for free, they could have registered him for the knockout stage of the competition using the mid-tournament registration window FIFA has added from June 27 to July 3. It means, in effect, Madrid are paying €10m for the extra month so the defender can feature in their group-stage games against Al Hilal (June 18), Pachuca (June 22) and Red Bull Salzburg (June 26).
Madrid did not just target Alexander-Arnold as a potential free transfer — they were prepared to pay €40m to sign him in January, but Liverpool did not entertain the possibility with the player also prioritising his side’s Premier League title campaign.
Alexander-Arnold scored 23 goals and provided 92 assists across 354 first-team appearances for Liverpool, where he won two league titles, the Champions League, the FA Cup and the Carabao Cup.
The Englishman’s exit from his boyhood club saw him booed by fans at Anfield when he came on as a substitute against Arsenal on May 11, the first game after he announced his intention to depart. In April, two posters were put around Liverpool about Alexander-Arnold’s expiring contract, which went viral on social media. Following Liverpool’s final game of the season, the 1-1 home draw against Brighton & Hove Albion, Alexander-Arnold was cheered when he lifted the Premier League trophy as part of the club’s title celebrations.