Real Madrid and Barcelona will battle it out on the pitch this Saturday night in Sevilla at the Olympic Stadium in the 2025 Copa del Rey Final, and they’ll battle it out again with LaLiga on the line in the fourth Clasico of the season – two of which the rising Blaugrana already dominated.
The balance is tipping in Barca’s favor this season after the Hansi Flick appointment, with Real Madrid out of the Champions League as defending champions while Barcelona are through to the semifinals.
When the 2024/25 season ends, though, the battle will continue for both Real Madrid and Barcelona, as the two historic LaLiga clubs will likely have a couple of high-profile transfer battles on the summer 2025 market.
Real Madrid are fans of Jonathan Tah
According to a report from Sky Sports Germany’s Florian Plettenberg, while Barcelona reached a verbal agreement with Bayer Leverkusen star center back Jonathan Tah “several weeks” ago, nothing official has been signed yet.
So other clubs are still able to monitor the situation, and Plettenberg, in particular, notes that Real Madrid are keeping a “close eye” on Tah, along with Leverkusen’s Bundesliga rivals Bayern Munich.
Plettenberg writes that Real Madrid “really like” the veteran defender and could be more interested, pending the arrival of Xabi Alonso this summer from Leverkusen to replace Carlo Ancelotti. In addition, Plettenberg notes that Tah and Alonso have a “strong relationship” together as player and coach.
Barcelona could make it easier for Real Madrid to get Tah
There’s a lot of smoke there, and the funny thing is that if Barcelona beat Real Madrid in even one of these Clasicos, they will accelerate Carlo’s departure, which could make it more likely they miss out on Tah.
The interesting thing is that Tah is a pass-first, covering center back who fits exactly how Barcelona like to play, and Flick, a former Bayern coach, is very familiar with how Tah could help him as he watched him closely in the Bundesliga and as Tah’s own coach with the German national team.
But Barcelona have a strong group of center backs, including arguably LaLiga’s two very best in Pau Cubarsi and Inigo Martinez. Meanwhile, Real Madrid are a train wreck at center back, as Raul Asencio is the only one with a sure-fire, long-term future at the club following Eder Militao’s back-to-back ACL tears and Antonio Rudiger’s poor 2024/25 campaign.
So all bets are off with Tah if Real Madrid bring in Alonso and seriously gun for the 29-year-old German international. Both Barcelona and Real Madrid love their free agent center back signings.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.