Real Madrid activate €9m buyback clause to reclaim Nico Páz from Como

Real Madrid are activating their €9m buyback clause for Nico Páz, recalling the 21-year-old Argentine midfielder from Serie A side Como ahead of the 2026-27 season, according to Fabrizio Romano. The move is procedurally straightforward — the clause, embedded in the original 2024 sale agreement, requires no consent from Como to execute.

Páz had reportedly preferred to extend his stay in Italy rather than return to Madrid this summer, but the clause structure was deliberately designed to give Los Blancos unilateral control over his future. Spanish outlets report that Como have already been notified of Madrid’s intent to proceed, with a contractual deadline of May 30 built into the agreement.

The €9m fee sits on the second rung of a tiered ladder Madrid wrote into the original deal: €8m for summer 2025, €9m for summer 2026, and €10m for summer 2027. Madrid chose not to exercise the cheaper €8m option last summer, allowing Páz a second full season of Serie A development before recalling him at marginally higher cost but, in their assessment, considerably greater readiness. Against Páz’s current market valuation — which analysts across Spain and Italy place substantially above the clause fee — the €9m activation price reflects the shrewdness of how the original deal was structured.

Madrid also retained 50% of any future transfer fee for Páz in the 2024 agreement, meaning Como never held full economic control over the player. That provision had already prompted Como CEO Carlalberto Ludi to push for a renegotiation that would nullify or modify both mechanisms, but Madrid declined to surrender the leverage they had deliberately built in.

The Páz activation fits the pattern of Real Madrid’s broader approach to this summer window, which has emphasised controlled, pre-planned recruitment over reactive market spending. There is no protracted fee negotiation, no competing clubs to fend off, and no agent intermediaries haggling over payment structure — it is among the cleanest transfer operations Madrid will conduct all window.

How Páz integrates into Carlo Ancelotti’s squad remains the open question, with the details of his role and competition for places yet to be resolved as the window develops.