• Real Madrid negotiated a buy-back option from Arsenal for Mesut Ozil on a deal that is worth €50 million, according to a transfer document that was published today on the Football Leaks website.The most striking element is the clause that gives Madrid a 48-hour first option on Ozil should Arsenal agree a sale for their playmaker to another Spanish club.
  • The option does not apply if Arsenal were to sell Ozil to a club outside of Spain and would require Madrid to at least match the deal that had been agreed elsewhere. It is a very similar clause to the one Arsenal had inserted in their deal to sell Cesc Fabregas to Barcelona and which they subsequently did not take up when he moved to Chelsea.
  • The breakdown of the Ozil payments is also revealing although does confirm a total fee that was worth around £42 million that has always been reported by Telegraph Sport. The changing exchange rate makes that total around £38 million today.
  •  There is a confidentiality clause in the document that forbids either party from disclosing the details of the deal to a third party without the prior written consent of the other party.

  • The publication of this document, then, will come as an embarrassment to both clubs. After the Bale and Anthony Martial transfer documents were also disclosed, it will further heighten concern within football at what over potentially sensitive documents could soon be published on the Football Leaks website.

    The option does not apply if Arsenal were to sell Ozil to a club outside of Spain and would require Madrid to at least match the deal: complex sentence