Valencia are determined to avoid a repeat of the summer of 2026, when they lost several of the key figures behind their success. Their response is to insert buyout clauses worth as much as €6 million (!) into player contracts.
The Spanish side were last season’s surprise package, winning the domestic title and reaching the EuroLeague Final Four. Their fast-paced basketball and solid defence also offered a fresh blueprint for the European game. That success turned the driving forces behind their campaign into some of the most sought-after names on the market.
Valencia certainly had the resources to offer their stars bigger contracts and try to keep them at Roig Arena. After all, this is a club with strong financial backing.
Still, competing with the pull of European basketball’s powerhouses is a difficult task. Valencia ultimately had to settle for collecting a series of buyout payments, totalling around €6 million. The money, however, came with a major challenge: rebuilding their entire project from the ground up, from the bench to the court.
Last season’s EuroLeague Coach of the Year, Pedro Martínez, left for Real Madrid, who paid his €1.5 million buyout. Jaime Pradilla, one of Spanish basketball’s brightest prospects, followed him to Movistar Arena for the same fee.
Greece’s basketball giants also went shopping from Valencia’s impressive roster this summer. Panathinaikos AKTOR signed Brancou Badio after paying his release clause, again worth €1.5 million, while Olympiacos landed one of the competition’s leading players, Jean Montero, whose buyout stood at €500,000.
According to Spanish newspaper Marca, those departures prompted serious concern within the Spanish champions. Their response was an unusual step: introducing release clauses worth up to €6 million (!) in player contracts. Valencia’s aim is to keep their core intact despite interest from the EuroLeague’s biggest clubs.
Even so, the report notes that Valencia have accepted that clubs may be willing to pay even those enormous sums.
“Whether that can deter the EuroLeague’s biggest spenders is another matter. The arrival of Dubai Basketball and Hapoel Tel Aviv, combined with the ambition of owners with deep pockets, such as those at Olympiacos and Panathinaikos, has sent prices soaring. There are clubs for whom no release clause is an obstacle, and Valencia know and accept that,” Marca writes.
“Some release clauses may not be enough to deter the president of Panathinaikos or an owner of Hapoel Tel Aviv or Dubai, given the amounts they are spending,” Valencia sporting director Luis Arbalejo said, before adding:
“In basketball, release clauses, however high they may be, still do not act as a deterrent. I don’t know how far this will go. A million used to be a lot. Now, perhaps five or six million counts as a lot, but even those amounts might be paid.”
European basketball’s transfer market is undoubtedly entering a new phase. The figures are soaring, and clubs are taking steps to protect themselves.
