Jaime Romero on the verge of extending loan with Real Zaragoza

Jaime Romero is now one step away from extending his loan with Real Zaragoza, rejecting higher salary offers from Oviedo and Almeria. Only two days ago, the operation seemed impossible due to the refusal of the Aragonese club to accept Udinese's offer for Vallejo (five million euros to be paid over ten years, plus the loan of the left winger). However, in the last few hours, the negotiations have taken a complete turn due to the player's strong desire to stay at La Romareda. Currently, only 50,000 euros separate the two parties from reaching an agreement, a gap that will be closed during the weekend and is expected to be finalized on Monday.

The sale of Vallejo to Real Madrid will allow Real Zaragoza to increase their salary cap from 2.5 to 4 million euros. With this budget margin, the Aragonese club has decided to make a strong bet on Jaime, who is considered a key piece for promotion by both the sports director, Ángel Martín González, and the coach, Ranko Popovic.

Oviedo and Almeria were willing to pay 300,000 euros for Jaime's loan, whose salary at Udinese is much higher. However, the player from La Mancha has consistently refused to accept those proposals, forcing the Italian club to resume negotiations with Zaragoza. In the last few hours, a negotiation that was completely paralyzed due to Vallejo's move to Madrid has been reopened. Real Madrid will indeed pay the five million euros for the Aragonese defender in cash. Jaime has continued to press Udinese in favor of Zaragoza, which is already offering 200,000 euros for an extension of the loan for the winger and is willing to increase it to 250,000 euros, amount that would finalize the operation.

Jaime continues training with Granada, a club that shares the same owner with Udinese, waiting for definite news. However, he already has his bags packed to return to Zaragoza and join Ranko Popovic's team next week.

Zaragoza wants to close the negotiation this weekend and finalize it on Monday or Tuesday, thus putting an end to what Popovic calls one of the two soap operas of the summer. The first was that of Brazilian player Willian José, who will join Las Palmas on loan this weekend.

In addition to the signing of Jaime, Martín González is confident that the exits of Javi Álamo and Fernández will be finalized in the coming days. The latter has an agreement with Oviedo, but it does not cover the 350,000 euros that he has signed for this season with Zaragoza.