Liverpool confirmed the signing of Osasuna and Spain winger Victor Munoz on Thursday after meeting his €40million release clause, turning a player once available to Real Madrid for a fraction of that fee into one of the summer’s sharper valuation swings.
The move explains why Spain Fc is being searched now: Munoz, 22, is back in the spotlight after a transfer that sends him to Liverpool on a five-year contract and leaves Madrid with a question that will linger for weeks. They sold him to Osasuna last July for €5million, with a further €1m available in add-ons, after he had played only 47 first-team minutes across four appearances. This summer, Madrid could have brought him back for €8million. They did not, and Liverpool simply met the higher clause.
That gap matters because Munoz is not being judged only on his fee. He is a graduate of Real Madrid’s La Fabrica and made his senior debut for the club as an 88th-minute substitute in a 4-3 La Liga defeat at Barcelona in May 2025, then missed a great chance to equalise when he fired over the bar. The criticism was heavy enough that he closed the comments section on his Instagram account for a long period after backlash from Madrid’s fanbase. For a player who once looked close to staying in Madrid’s orbit, the route from La Fabrica to Liverpool now reads like a missed decision as much as a career step.
There is also a clean football reason the story has traction today: Munoz made his international debut in March and is now at the World Cup with Luis de la Fuente’s side, which gives his club move an immediate stage beyond club football. Barcelona’s interest in him eventually faded, Madrid did not act on the option they had, and Liverpool have taken the player at the price his new club was prepared to demand. What remains unanswered is the simplest part of the business: why Madrid let the €8million chance pass when the market value had already moved so sharply.
