{"id":204762,"date":"2025-10-11T08:33:10","date_gmt":"2025-10-11T08:33:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/204762\/"},"modified":"2025-10-11T08:33:10","modified_gmt":"2025-10-11T08:33:10","slug":"xabi-alonso-targets-rodrigo-mendoza-as-potential-midfield-signing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/204762\/","title":{"rendered":"Xabi Alonso Targets Rodrigo Mendoza as Potential Midfield Signing"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso has identified central midfielder Rodrigo Mendoza as a possible addition to the club\u2019s future midfield plans. The 20-year-old Elche midfielder has been one of Spain\u2019s standout performers at the U-20 World Cup, forming a strong partnership with current academy prospect Thiago Pitarch in the heart of midfield. ESPN reported that Madrid had contacts in place to sign Mendoza for Castilla last winter.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Mendoza\u2019s composure, tactical intelligence, and maturity have caught Alonso\u2019s attention, aligning closely with Madrid\u2019s current recruitment philosophy of acquiring young, high-upside Spanish talent. His contract with Elche runs until 2028 and includes a \u20ac20 million release clause \u2014 a figure that would make him an attainable target should Madrid decide to move.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Club sources at Valdebebas view Mendoza as a natural fit for Alonso\u2019s system, capable of playing in a possession-based, press-resistant midfield. The player remains grounded, focused on his development with Elche and Spain\u2019s youth setup.<\/p>\n<p class=\"duet--article--dangerously-set-cms-markup duet--article--standard-paragraph _1nfb3k4i _16w9vov1 _16w9vov0 ls9zuh1\">Other names on Madrid\u2019s radar include Adam Wharton of Crystal Palace and Kees Smit of AZ Alkmaar, but Mendoza is highly valued by Alonso\u2019s coaching staff.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid coach Xabi Alonso has identified central midfielder Rodrigo Mendoza as a possible addition to the club\u2019s&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204763,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[440],"tags":[49,48,4838,561,82],"class_list":["post-204762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-real-madrid-transfer-news-rumors","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204762"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204762\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204763"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}