Club Atlético River Plate and Atlético de Madrid on Wednesday night reached an agreement over the transfer of Thiago Almada, who will leave Spain just one year after joining Atlético from Botafogo.
First reported by Marcos Durán and later confirmed by Gastón Edul as well as Isaac Suárez in Marca, Almada has decided to join struggling River Plate in a deal worth a little more than €20 million; it will be the most expensive incoming transfer in the history of Argentine football. The midfielder had drawn
interest from Flamengo, another South American giant and last season’s Copa Libertadores winners.
Almada began the 2025/26 season as a starter under Diego Simeone, but he suffered a muscle injury in September that cost him five weeks and valuable adaptation time. He struggled for minutes after that and was first linked with a return to South America amid interest from Palmeiras in January. Though he laid on an assist for Julián Alvarez’s equalizer and converted his penalty in the shootout of the Copa del Rey final, the writing was on the wall already for Almada — a player whose physical weakness and tactical indiscipline overshadowed his many technical gifts.
River have been trying to sign Almada for months and now will have the chance to pair him with Ángel Correa — the man Almada was signed to “replace” last summer. Correa joined Los Millonarios after completing an acrimonious departure from Mexican side Tigres last month.
Almada and Nahuel Molina’s transfers are just missing official confirmation from the club, while Matteo Ruggeri’s proposed transfer to Aston Villa is still missing the player’s OK. Those three transfers would clear around €14 million in gross salary from the wage bill — which is about the same figure that Atlético will offer center-back Cristian Romero to complete his proposed signing from Tottenham Hotspur.
Marca reports that Atlético have already submitted a first offer of €30 million to Spurs, and the club is prepared to go up to €40 million to sign Romero, who has been Cholo Simeone’s top transfer target in defense for two summers. Personal terms are not expected to be an issue with the Argentina defender, though Inter Milan remain strongly in the hunt to land his signature.
