Real Madrid eye Enzo Fernandez as £125m City signing struggles in early Premier League form

Real Madrid are keeping tabs on Enzo Fernandez just months after Manchester City broke their transfer record to sign the Argentine midfielder for around £125m, according to reports from Fichajes and Bernabeu Digital.

Fernandez joined City in the summer of 2026 from Chelsea, where he had arrived in January 2023 following his breakout performances for Argentina at the 2022 World Cup. The move was designed to reunite him with manager Enzo Maresca, under whom he had previously shown some of his best club form. Yet the early signs at the Etihad have been unconvincing.

City’s defeat to Brighton on Saturday — their third loss in four Premier League matches — brought Fernandez’s struggles into sharp focus. Erling Haaland was visibly frustrated with his team-mate during the game after the midfielder failed to win a single duel. According to data from Gradient Sports, Fernandez currently ranks in just the 66th percentile for duel-winning this season, a concerning return for a player who cost nine figures.

The issue is partly structural. When Fernandez lines up alongside summer signing Elliot Anderson in a double pivot, the England international is left shouldering the majority of the defensive workload. With Rayan Cherki and Phil Foden also competing for the No.10 role, questions are mounting over where Fernandez fits most effectively in Maresca’s system.

Real Madrid’s interest adds an intriguing dimension. Los Blancos have been tracking developments around City’s ongoing Premier League charges and are also linked with Liverpool’s Alexis Mac Allister — Fernandez’s Argentina international team-mate — but their attention to the City midfielder has not faded. Should Maresca depart under pressure, Fernandez’s future at the club would become considerably less certain.

City have invested over a billion pounds across the past three seasons, with Fernandez, Anderson, and Ayyoub Bouaddi among the headline arrivals in the summer 2026 window at a combined cost of around £300m. Despite that outlay, the club have slipped off the pace at the top of the table, with Arsenal replacing them as leaders over the weekend after City’s seventh win in seven was followed by back-to-back defeats.

For now, the club are understood to remain committed to Fernandez and would not have shattered their own record signing unless they were convinced of his quality. But at £125m, patience in the stands and in the dressing room will only stretch so far.