{"id":448132,"date":"2026-02-04T07:57:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:57:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/448132\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T07:57:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T07:57:09","slug":"zubimendi-responds-to-idea-he-was-missing-link-at-real-madrid","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/448132\/","title":{"rendered":"Zubimendi responds to idea he was missing link at Real Madrid"},"content":{"rendered":"

Real Madrid did not choose to sign a midfielder in the summer, following the departures of Toni Kroos and Luka Modric in successive years. It was a decision that has been hotly debated, with the club feeling they had sufficient talent to transition to a new midfield. More recently, it has been reported that a midfielder is a priority for the upcoming summer<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Los Blancos were credited with interest in Kees Smit and Adam Wharton, but decided against moving for either of them. The Dutch talent remains on Real Madrid\u2019s shortlist, but then manager Xabi Alonso was in favour of moving for Martin Zubimendi. As it was, the former Real Sociedad midfielder had agreed a \u20ac70m move to Arsenal<\/a>, but has been highlighted by some in Spain as the ideal signing for Los Blancos.<\/p>\n

Zubimendi responds to missing link idea<\/p>\n

Speaking after Arsenal\u2019s progress to the Carabao Cup final<\/a>, following a 4-2 aggregate win over Chelsea, the idea was put to Zubimendi himself.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t think so, Madrid has more than enough players to do well. No way, no way,\u201d he told Cadena SER<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"ZubimendiImage via Cordon PressZubimendi on Merino injury: \u2018He\u2019ll do everything to be at World Cup\u2019<\/p>\n

Zubimendi is competing for a starting spot in Spain\u2019s World Cup team, as was the case for teammate Mikel Merino. However the latter has been ruled out with a stress fracture in his shin, and could well see him miss the tournament. Merino is aiming to be back before the end of the season though.<\/p>\n

\u201cWell, he\u2019s in pain, but he\u2019s a very professional person who takes care of himself and always thinks about what\u2019s best for the club. I know he\u2019s the one who\u2019s most hurt, but the damage his injury has done to the club is significant,\u201d Zubimendi remarked on his midfield partner.<\/p>\n

\"LamineImage via RFEF<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, he seems fine, but everyone is different when they go home\u2026 I understand it\u2019s harder than it looks. I know he\u2019ll do everything he can to get there, and if he doesn\u2019t, it\u2019ll be a real shame. We\u2019ll see what happens.\u201d<\/p>\n

Merino and Zubimendi have been in excellent form in Spain shirts of late, threatening to take the starting spots from Fabian Ruiz and Rodri Hernandez in Luis de la Fuente\u2019s starting XI. La Roja\u2019s manager is facing a tough choice, given how the past two years have gone for his Euro 2024-winning midfield, with none of Fabian, Dani Olmo or Rodri enjoying completely smooth rides since.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Real Madrid did not choose to sign a midfielder in the summer, following the departures of Toni Kroos…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448133,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[403,99],"class_list":["post-448132","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-soccer","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448132","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448132"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448132\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448133"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448132"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448132"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448132"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}