Diario AS report that Leon Goretzka (31, German) has been offered to Atlético Madrid as the club continues to pursue midfield reinforcements ahead of the 2026-27 season. The Bayern Munich midfielder’s contract expires on June 30, making him a free agent this week, and his representatives have put him on Los Colchoneros’ radar as potential destinations are weighed up across Europe.
Atlético’s midfield recruitment drive has been running across several fronts this summer, with sporting director Alemany understood to be managing a shortlist of targets at varying price points. As previously covered on Football Espana, Aleix García has been another name actively pursued by the club, illustrating the breadth of options Simeone’s staff are assessing in the middle of the park.
The distinction between being offered and being pursued
The distinction worth drawing here is between a player being offered to a club and a club actively pursuing that player. AS’s report confirms the former: Goretzka’s camp has put a proposal to Atlético, not that Atlético have responded with a formal approach or tabled a contract offer of their own. That is not a trivial difference, particularly given the context of this specific saga.
Goretzka was one of the players Alemany targeted in the January window, with multiple reports at the time indicating Atlético had tabled a nominal fee – understood to be in the region of €2-3 million – to bring him to the Metropolitano mid-season. Bayern resisted, and Goretzka himself opted to run his contract down and leave on his own terms in the summer. The January episode confirms genuine mutual interest at some level; it does not confirm that the current offer will be acted upon, especially given that the salary question remains the central complication.
AS note Goretzka’s reported annual salary at Bayern is approximately €15 million gross – a figure AS themselves acknowledge sits beyond what Atlético can realistically match. That single factor has more bearing on whether this develops into a genuine pursuit than any other element of the story, and AS’s report stops well short of suggesting Atlético have found a way around it.
What Goretzka’s profile offers – and where it fits less cleanly
On a purely footballing basis, the case for Goretzka at the Metropolitano is not difficult to construct. He is physically imposing at 1.89 metres, covers significant ground across 90 minutes, and has the capacity to function both as a ball-winner and as a late runner into the opposition area – qualities that map reasonably well onto the hybrid midfield roles Simeone has consistently favoured. He played 2,349 minutes for Bayern across 48 appearances this season, contributing five goals and five assists, which suggests he remains a useful and reliable operator even if he is no longer an automatic starter at one of Europe’s wealthiest clubs.
The age question – he turns 32 in February – is relevant but not disqualifying in Simeone’s system, which has never prioritised youth in the centre of the park over experience and tactical compliance. Koke had an excellent season by all accounts, and Cardoso underperformed relative to expectations in his debut campaign as a rojiblanco, which is precisely why Atlético are looking to add quality in this area. The more salient concern is not whether Goretzka can do a job at this level, but whether his salary expectations leave any viable path to an agreement.
For additional context on the breadth of Atlético’s midfield search, Kang-in Lee has also emerged as a concurrent target for Los Colchoneros this summer, reflecting the range of profiles the club is considering as Simeone refines his requirements.
What this means for Atletico Madrid’s summer
Atlético’s position is that they need at minimum one midfield addition, and potentially two if Cardoso’s situation is resolved through a loan or departure. Morten Hjulmand, the Danish midfielder currently at Sporting CP, is reported by AS to be among the players most liked within the club’s sporting structure, with a price tag of between €40-45 million cited as the potential fee – a sum that represents a significant but not impossible investment for Atlético if the salary envelope is workable.
That price comparison is instructive. A free transfer for Goretzka removes one financial barrier entirely, but the wage demands potentially create an equally prohibitive one in its place. Atlético’s ongoing midfield discussions have extended to Premier League clubs as well, which suggests the club is not restricting itself to any single profile or fee structure. Goretzka’s offer arrives into a genuinely competitive internal process rather than a clear vacancy waiting to be filled.
What this means for Goretzka’s summer
From Goretzka’s perspective, this is an agent-driven process aimed at generating competition among interested parties before a decision is made. AS note that Juventus are reported to be strongly interested from Italy, and Arsenal have been monitoring his situation in England – with Tottenham and Milan also cited in other European reports. Atlético are one option among several, not a frontrunner by any reading of AS’s report.
Bayern’s involvement in this is now functionally zero: his contract expires this week and the club has no leverage or meaningful say in where he ends up. Whether Bayern would have preferred a small transfer fee in January over letting him walk for nothing is a moot point. The decision now rests entirely with Goretzka and whichever club can satisfy his wage demands.
The next meaningful development will be whether Atlético indicate to Goretzka’s camp that they can close the gap on his salary expectations – either by restructuring the gross-to-net terms or by offering performance-related incentives – or whether the financial arithmetic confirms what AS’s own report implies: that a free transfer is appealing in principle but undeliverable in practice at the figures currently on the table.
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