With official fixtures on hold until the World Cup dust settles, the transfer market has grabbed everyone's attention.
The summer of 2026 has made one thing clear. Florentino Pérez, re-elected as Real Madrid president, will throw every euro he has at breaking the grip of Barcelona, who have claimed the last two La Liga titles.
Real Madrid's spending this year, both the confirmed deals and those still in the works, dwarfs what Pérez laid out in the summer of 2010 to topple a Barcelona side who had just been crowned Champions League winners, added the Spanish silverware and completed their historic treble of La Liga, the Copa del Rey and the Champions League in 2009.
The parallels run so deep that Pérez has gone back to the very coach he hired then: José Mourinho, the Portuguese he paid 15 million euros to prise from Benfica.
The newspaper "Mundo Deportivo" reports that because Mourinho carries less weight with the president than Álvaro Arbeloa or even Xabi Alonso, the veteran is now being handed a wider spread of reinforcements than he had back in 2010.
Real Madrid and Mourinho: the 2010 scenario
That summer, 16 years ago, Real Madrid pulled in a raft of names. Ángel Di María, the exceptional Argentine international winger, arrived from Benfica. Mesut Özil, the German midfielder fresh from a brilliant World Cup, came from Werder Bremen. Sami Khedira, the physically powerful German international, signed from Stuttgart. And Ricardo Carvalho, the famous Portuguese centre-back Mourinho had commanded during his first Chelsea spell, followed his old boss.
Two promising Spaniards also joined: Pedro León, the attacking midfielder from Getafe, and Sergio Canales, whose name was making waves at Racing Santander.
The bill came to roughly 60 million euros at the time. Those arrivals were meant to round off a series of blockbuster deals that preceded them, the likes of Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaká, Karim Benzema and Xabi Alonso, taking the combined outlay past a record 230 million euros.
In the summer of 2026, Pérez set out to please Mourinho with fresh faces to drag Real Madrid out of a two-season slump behind Barcelona. He landed French defender Ibrahima Konaté (26) and Portuguese attacking midfielder Bernardo Silva (31) as free agents once their Liverpool and Manchester City contracts expired, paid Chelsea 60 million euros for Catalan full-back Marc Cucurella (28), and handed Inter Milan 20 million euros for Dutch international full-back Denzel Dumfries (30).
Since the World Cup ended, reports have surfaced that Real Madrid want to pay more than 100 million euros for Yan Diomande, the 19-year-old Ivorian winger at Leipzig, with a similar figure earmarked for Rodri Hernández, the 30-year-old Manchester City midfielder whose outstanding World Cup dazzled everyone and swept away Real Madrid's initial hesitation.
Get both deals over the line and they will comfortably eclipse Real Madrid's effort in the summer of 2025, which chased the same target: dethroning Barcelona.
Last summer brought a fresh batch through the door. Argentine attacking midfielder Franco Mastantuono (18) arrived from River Plate for 63.2 million euros. Spanish defender Dean Huijsen (20) came from Bournemouth for 58 million euros. Spanish full-back Álvaro Carreras (22) signed from Benfica for 50 million euros. And England full-back Trent Alexander-Arnold (25) joined from Liverpool for 11 million euros a month before his contract expired, so he could feature at the 2025 Club World Cup.
Twelve months on, and 182.2 million euros lighter, not one of them has nailed down a starting spot in the Real Madrid side Mourinho will lean on.
Barcelona: an exceptional generation with Guardiola
Back in the summer of 2010, Barcelona were hoovering up trophies and basking in global fame that dated to 2008, driven by Pep Guardiola and a golden generation of homegrown talent led by Lionel Messi.
Their business that year was modest but sharp. David Villa arrived from Valencia for 40 million euros, Argentine international Javier Mascherano from Liverpool for 22 million euros, and Brazilian full-back Adriano Correia from Sevilla for 9.5 million euros.
Mourinho's first season at Real Madrid, 2010-2011, ended with Barcelona lifting both La Liga and the Champions League, trophies that now sit in the club's museum.
More than fifteen years later, history is repeating itself. Spain are world champions with eight Barcelona players in the squad, and in that same summer Mourinho lands in Madrid.
Squeezed by La Liga's financial limits and committed to their academy, Barcelona have signed sparingly in recent seasons. Dani Olmo, a former youth player, returned from Leipzig for 60 million euros, Pau Víctor came from Girona for 2.5 million euros, and after Marc-André ter Stegen's injury Polish goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny arrived on a free.
In the summer of 2025, Hansi Flick's second window, Barcelona paid Espanyol the 25 million euro release clause for goalkeeper Joan García and brought in Roony Bardghji for 2.5 million, alongside loan pair Marcus Rashford (Manchester United) and João Cancelo (Al-Hilal).
The summer of 2026 has so far delivered two forwards to the Camp Nou. Anthony Gordon, the 25-year-old England international, cost 70 million euros plus 10 million in add-ons from Newcastle. Karim Adeyemi, the German international forward, arrived from Borussia Dortmund for 22 million euros plus 7 million in add-ons.
With the chase for Julián Álvarez still on, the battle lines are drawn: Mourinho's Real Madrid against Barcelona's dominance. Perhaps not in Europe, but on home soil for certain.