An insight into the simple but effective strategy made use of by La Liga giants Real Madrid to entice their leading transfer targets to join the club has been provided on Monday.
The info comes courtesy of Mario Cortegana of The Athletic, who is known to boast strong ties to the boardroom at the Santiago Bernabéu.
Real, of course, look set to add to the squad at the disposal of head coach Carlo Ancelotti in spectacular fashion once more this summer.
This comes with a pre-contract agreement with Paris Saint-Germain talisman Kylian Mbappé having been all but sewn up, and Bayern Munich defender Alphonso Davies pushing for a move to Spain’s capital, too.
Just how, though, do Los Blancos time and time again beat out the competition for world football’s finest players?
The answer, it would appear, is an altogether simple one – Aura.
As per the aforementioned Mario Cortegana, a central element of the ‘recruitment process’ at Real is to send chief scout Juni Calafat to meetings with prospective transfer targets.
From here, Calafat presents one of the club’s jerseys, with their own name emblazoned across the back, before informing the player in question that as much has been sent directly by Blancos president Florentino Pérez.
Speaking on the Twitch channel of journalist Iñaki Angulo on Monday, Cortegana explained:
“Sources with knowledge of Real Madrid’s recruitment process told me, the club’s go to move is simply Juni Calafat showing up to meet a player they want with a Real Madrid jersey and telling them: ‘Florentino sent this for you.’ And the players go crazy when this happens.”