Atlético Madrid have their first signing of the 2026-27 window sewn up, and it is the one supporters have wanted for some time. Alejandro Grimaldo joins from Bayer Leverkusen for a fee in the €20-25 million range, with personal terms long since agreed on a contract until 2030.
Who is Alejandro Grimaldo?
Grimaldo was born in Valencia on September 20, 1995, and he joined FC Barcelona’s academy at 11 after two years at his hometown club. He broke a Spanish second-division age
record with Barça B at 15 and spent four years in the first-team setup before leaving for Benfica in 2016, never making a senior Barcelona appearance.
His career then took shape in Portugal with seven seasons at Benfica, where he won four Liga Portugal titles and established himself as one of the league’s most reliable attacking full-backs. He arrived at Bayer Leverkusen on a free transfer in 2023, a deal that now ranks among the great bargains in Bundesliga history.
Under Xabi Alonso, Grimaldo became central to the only unbeaten domestic season in German top-flight history, helping Leverkusen win the 2023-24 Bundesliga and DFB Pokal double. He earned Ballon d’Or consideration that year. Across his Leverkusen spell he made 145 appearances in all competitions, scored 30 goals and provided 45 assists, numbers that dipped once Alonso left for Real Madrid in 2025. But he recovered to 13 goals and 11 assists in 43 games under Kasper Hjulmand this past season.
Grimaldo has 14 Spain caps to his name at senior level and was part of the Euro 2024-winning squad, though minutes with La Roja often have been limited. He is currently in the United States with Spain for the FIFA World Cup, mostly from the bench.
Where does Grimaldo play and how does he fit in?
Grimaldo operates as a left-back or left wing-back, and the Leverkusen version of him under Alonso was closer to an auxiliary midfielder than a conventional defender. Bundesliga’s tactical desk described him as the inverted half of a wing-back pairing with Jeremie Frimpong: while Frimpong hugged the touchline for width, Grimaldo tucked inside to form a five-man overload through the center, a profile traceable to his time as a central midfielder and left-winger in Barcelona’s youth ranks.
That positional intelligence travels well to Diego Simeone’s system, which has long demanded full-backs capable of both defensive discipline and overlapping or underlapping threat down the left. Matteo Ruggeri currently holds that spot, but is tipped to leave this summer with interest from several Italian clubs reported ahead of a potential return, with it never seeming that he had fully convinced Simeone.
Grimaldo’s role is an intriguing one, as he possesses the versatility to play as a wing-back in a back-five, or as a full-back in a back four, and that gives nothing away as to Simeone’s plans for the upcoming season. While 2025/26 saw a reliance on a 4-4-2 shape, sometimes alternating to a 4-2-3-1, changes to the squad in defence and midfield could alter that idea.
What’s more, Grimaldo solves a problem Atlético have carried for years: a genuine dead-ball threat from a defensive position. WhoScored rates his set-piece taking and direct free-kicks among the strongest in his role across Europe, and his 77 percent successful dribble rate at Leverkusen suggests a player happy to beat a man rather than simply recycle possession.
At 171cm he is not physically commanding, and WhoScored flags his aerial duels and tackling as weak points relative to his attacking numbers, which is the trade-off Atlético are signing up for. They are betting on end product over brute defensive solidity.
Who does Grimaldo play like?
Bundesliga’s own profile of him in 2024 drew the most direct comparison to Raphaël Guerreiro, the Portuguese left-back whose Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund career was built on the same mix of technical comfort under pressure and dead-ball menace, with the suggestion Grimaldo’s end product slightly exceeds Guerreiro’s.
Within an Atlético context, the closer parallel is Filipe Luis. The Brazilian’s two spells at the Metropolitano, either side of his Chelsea year, were defined by the same willingness to bomb forward from left-back and deliver from wide areas, a profile Atleti have not consistently replaced since he left in 2019. Grimaldo though adds a dimension Filipe Luís never had: he is arguably the best dead-ball striker to occupy a full-back shirt anywhere in Europe over the past three seasons.
Does Grimaldo have any links to Atleti?
None historically. Grimaldo is a Barcelona academy product through and through, and there was speculation earlier in the window that a return to Spotify Camp Nou could be engineered around Alejandro Balde or João Cancelo departing. That speculation never turned into a concrete approach. Atlético’s interest accelerated only after Marc Cucurella, their initial alternative target and another La Masia graduate, signed for Real Madrid, forcing sporting director Mateu Alemany to commit fully to the Leverkusen route.
There is also a Spain national team link worth flagging, with Grimaldo having been pictured taking in the sunshine alongside his new team-mates Marcos Llorente, Álex Baena and Marc Pubill while on international duty in the United States for the World Cup.
Grimaldo has discussed previously that joining Xabi Alonso at Real Madrid was once a live possibility, which makes the eventual destination being Atlético’s fiercest city rival rather than the Bernabéu a small irony of the saga.
What’s been said about Grimaldo?
The praise from inside Leverkusen has been consistent and specific. Frimpong, his former wing-back partner, called him a “free-kick monster” and said his left foot is “a joke.” Patrik Schick put it more simply: a Grimaldo free-kick from the right spot is “like a penalty for him.”
Hjulmand, his most recent coach, did not hold back after a Champions League outing last September.
“It’s just world-class. Absolutely crazy,” he said. “He just sees the goal. His free-kick ability is unbelievable. Pure, sheer world-class.”
Simon Rolfes, Leverkusen’s sporting director, was more measured when discussing his valuation during negotiations, telling Kicker, “it always depends on the market, and the market for a left-back is not so simple,” a line that aged well given Leverkusen ultimately extracted a fee close to their stated floor.
