{"id":901,"date":"2026-06-01T20:24:24","date_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:24:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=901"},"modified":"2026-06-01T20:24:24","modified_gmt":"2026-06-01T20:24:24","slug":"bayer-leverkusen-star-will-eventually-return-to-la-liga-as-ex-barcelona-academy-star-reveals-transfer-plan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/?p=901","title":{"rendered":"Bayer Leverkusen star &#8216;will eventually&#8217; return to La Liga as ex-Barcelona academy star reveals transfer plan"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div data-testid=\"article-body\" data-affiliate-button-variant=\"A\">\n<div>\n<p><span>Grimaldo was heavily linked with a return to Spain last summer, connecting to several of La Liga\u2019s biggest clubs. Although speculation surrounded potential moves throughout the transfer window, the Spanish international ultimately remained in Germany, where he continued as a key part of Leverkusen\u2019s squad.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Speaking previously about the interest he received, <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.goal.com\/en\/lists\/they-signed-alvaro-carreras-instead-bayer-leverkusen-star-says-he-could-have-joined-real-madrid-or-barcelona-in-summer-transfer-window\/bltd678df62ea7d70b4\" rel=\"nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" data-affiliate-type=\"NONE\"><span>Grimaldo revealed that potential moves to Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid never progressed beyond initial discussions<\/span><\/a><span>. \u201cThere was always the possibility of going with Xabi Alonso, but in the end it didn&#8217;t happen,\u201d he said of Real Madrid, noting that the club instead signed \u00c1lvaro Carreras. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>He also acknowledged talks with Barcelona, adding that \u201cif they don&#8217;t happen in the end, it&#8217;s because they weren&#8217;t meant to be.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span>Regarding Atletico Madrid, Grimaldo explained that conversations took place but \u201cpractically nothing happened&#8221;, stressing that transfer-market contacts do not always develop into concrete deals.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Grimaldo was heavily linked with a return to Spain last summer, connecting to several of La Liga\u2019s biggest clubs. Although&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":902,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-901","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=901"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/901\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/902"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=901"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=901"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racingsport.xyz\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=901"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}