Real Madrid pay Liverpool to sign Alexander-Arnold early

Trent Alexander-Arnold will become a Real Madrid player on Sunday, 1 June after Liverpool accepted a fee to release the defender early from his contract.

Sources at Liverpool have indicated the fee is 10m euros (£8.4m), which Real have made as a single, up-front payment. However, sources at the Spanish club have suggested they have paid a lower amount.

A payment has been agreed to allow the England right-back to Real in time to play in the Club World Cup.

The 26-year-old would have been able to leave Liverpool on a free transfer when his contract expired on 30 June.

Alexander-Arnold, who had already confirmed he would leave Liverpool this summer, has agreed a six-year deal and his contract includes a 1bn euro (£840m) buy-out clause.

Fifa approved an additional window for this summer, from 1-10 June, allowing teams to new players for the expanded month-long Club World Cup, which starts on 14 June and is being held in the United States.

Real's opening group game is against Saudi side Al-Hilal on 18 June in Miami.

Before that, Alexander-Arnold could add to his 33 England caps having been named in the squad for their World Cup qualifier against Andorra (7 June) and friendly against Senegal (10 June).

Just hours after Alexander-Arnold's move was confirmed, Liverpool completed the g of Jeremie Frimpong from Bayer Leverkusen for 35m euros (£29.5m).

Real have acted quickly to try to improve their team after an underwhelming campaign, with Spain defender Dean Huijsen also ing on 1 June from Bournemouth in a £50m move.

The Spanish giants will be motivated to win the Club World Cup after a season in which they failed to win a major domestic or European trophy for the first time since 2020-21.

And there is the obvious financial incentive of the winner of the 32-team tournament potentially earning up to £97m in prize money.

This move also enables Alexander-Arnold to start working sooner with Xabi Alonso, who has succeeded Carlo Ancelotti as Real boss.

Alexander-Arnold has been with Liverpool since ing his hometown club at the age of six.

He has won two Premier League titles, the Champions League, Fifa Club World Cup, Uefa Super Cup, FA Cup and League Cup with the Reds.

But earlier this month he said he had decided to leave to experience a "new challenge" and to push himself "personally and professionally".

Alexander-Arnold leaves Liverpool having claimed 23 goals and 92 assists in 354 appearances for the club.

He will England team-mate Jude Bellingham in Madrid, plus former Liverpool and Real midfielder Alonso.

Football finance expert Kieran Maguire

The financial benefits of getting into the further stages of the Club World Cup outweigh the short-term cost of paying 10m euros for Alexander-Arnold.

Real Madrid also want to integrate him as quickly as they can in of pre-season training and so on.

Liverpool are in a very strong position in regards to the Profit and Sustainability Rules.

And they have played a canny game, because Real Madrid didn't expect to have to pay this much but Liverpool have waited and waited and Real folded in the end.