Real Madrid misses out on the chance to sign one of Europe's best defenders

For Real Madrid, one of their biggest goals in the transfer market this summer was to reinforce their leaky defense and so far they've been delivering. The club has already signed Marc Cucurella, Ibrahima Konate, and Denzel Dumfries and their has been talk that in addition to Konate they are interested in signing another central defender. The club has been linked with every defender you can think of, however, there was one defender in particular who was sitting right in front of their faces and the club missed out on bringing him in.

As being reported by BILD (via Yahoo Sports) Real Madrid won't be signing Borussia Dortmund defender Nico Schlotterbeck this summer as the €50 million release clause in his new contract has officially expired. The defender also suffered a long-term ankle ligament injury at the World Cup further ending the possibility of a move to the Bernabeu this summer.

Real Madrid inexplicably misses out on lay-up signing this summer

Real Madrid has had a pretty strong summer with their transfer activity both with arrivals and departures but missing out on Schlotterbeck does put somewhat of a damper on things. One of Europe's best central defenders was sitting right in front of Real Madrid and for €50 million is a lay-up of a signing for a club like Real Madrid and yet somehow they decided not to pull the trigger.

Real Madrid had been linked with a move for Schlotterbeck all summer, with that clause in his extension put in specifically for Real Madrid and yet they somehow still didn't activate it. The club instead decided to go with Liverpool's Ibrahima Konate on a free but despite that signing are still rumored to be interested in bringing in another central defender, so why didn't they just activate the German's release clause?

The 26-year-old brings everything to the table that it takes to be a great center-back at Real Madrid. He's young, tall, quick, good with the ball at his feet, a threat on set pieces, and brings an intensity to the game that Real Madrid's backline has been missing since the departure of Sergio Ramos. Schlotterbeck would have been the perfect addition to the backline and the last piece of the puzzle to fix the shaky backline of seasons past, but evidently the hierarchy didn't think so.

Real Madrid can always come back for Schlotterbeck next summer but without that €50 million release clause, Los Blancos are at the mercy of Dortmund and what fee they demand. He had a strong season in 25/26 and once he's back from injury he's surely to have a strong campaign this year meaning his price tag will only go up which is bad news for Real Madrid and shows why they shouldn't have passed on signing him this summer.

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This article was originally published on therealchamps.com as Real Madrid misses out on the chance to sign one of Europe's best defenders.