Bayern Munich agree Alvaro Odriozola loan deal with Real Madrid

Current Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich have confirmed the signing of Spanish full-back Alvaro Odriozola from Real Madrid on loan.

The Real Madrid defender has passed his medical and will be a Bayern Munich player till June 30, 2020.

The 24-year-old moved to Real Sociedad in a £27m deal in 2018 but has since then struggled to nail down a starting berth since at the Spanish capital.

Meanwhile, Dani Carvajal has remained Los Blancos’ regular right-back and with summer signing Eder Militao’s ability to act as cover in that position might have convinced the La Liga giants to allow the four-time Spanish international make the move.

Odriozola was known to be keen on finding regular first-team football elsewhere with Euros ahead and will now compete to start ahead of Benjamin Pavard, who only joined Bayern in the summer himself.

With Pavard also being used as a centre-back, the need to have a traditional right-back is understandable. Bayern’s other full-back Joshua Kimmich has more often than not been deployed as a holding midfielder this season.

And with Kimmich’s shift to being a midfielder and Pavard’s shift in acting as a centre-back, the Bavarians swiftly brought in the Spanish player into their ranks.

The Spanish defender was afforded plenty of opportunities when Santiago Solari was in charge of Real Madrid last season as he made 22 appearances across all competitions.

However, his situation since Zinedine Zidane returned to the helm at the Bernabeu has been rather worse, although he was also pegged back by an injury towards the end of last season. This term, though, Odriozola has turned out just 5 times for Real Madrid, barely even making the squad most of the time.

“Following internal discussions, we agreed to follow the wishes of head coach Hansi Flick in strengthening the defence and decided to go for Álvaro Odriozola. We are delighted about the signing and thank Real Madrid for the friendly and cooperative talks,” said Bayern Munich chairman Karl-Heinz Rummenigge.

Sporting director Hasan Salihamidžić said: “We are convinced Alvaro Odriozola will help our team with his qualities. I am very happy we’ve found a full-back like him.”

The Munich-based club moved to second in the Bundesliga table with a win at the weekend but remain four points adrift of leaders RB Leipzig in their bid to retain the crown.