During this time at Villarreal, Pau Torres was regularly regarded as one of the most underrated defenders in La Liga. However, he ended up leaving the Groguets during the summer to join former manager Unai Emery at Aston Villa.
However, he could have left Villarreal even earlier. Back in 2021, he was on Real Madrid’s radar following the departure of Sergio Ramos. However, as Torres told Relevo, he was not selected by Los Blancos, who opted to go for David Alaba instead.
“I didn’t reject them. I would never reject a club like Real Madrid or Barcelona. There were conversations but in the end they had a market opportunity, which was very good, and it was signing Alaba for free.”
Had Alaba not been available on a free transfer signing from Bayern Munich, it may well have been that Torres could be at Real Madrid right now. However, he probably won’t be complaining about how things have played out over the last couple of years.
