It's been a month since the World Cup final, where Spain overcame Argentina in extra-time, and many of the players from that game will do battle as the 2026-27 LaLiga season starts in earnest. (You can stream every game LIVE on ESPN+ in the United States).
The campaign kicked off last weekend without Barcelona or Real Madrid kicking a ball -- the Clásico clubs enter the fray for the first time this weekend as Madrid play Espanyol on Saturday before defending champions Barça face Elche on Sunday.
There have been many more summer moves than usual for the two sides: Madrid have a new manager, and the clubs have spent almost €400 million between them in the transfer window, with further arrivals potentially yet to come.
ESPN's Spanish football writers Alex Kirkland, Graham Hunter, Sam Marsden and Sid Lowe answer all of the key questions ahead of the arrival of LaLiga's biggest two clubs.
What have Barcelona done in the transfer window?
Marsden: Barcelona have been busy in the transfer window, and the message from ESPN sources at the club is they are not done yet.
Spain's World Cup Golden Ball winner Rodri is the headline signing, joining from Manchester City in a deal worth an initial €60 million. The midfielder will add leadership in the middle of the pitch that manager Hansi Flick said was lacking last season. He will talk Barça's young players through games, protect the back four and accelerate transitions in play.
Rodri's addition to midfield is an evolution of a position where Barça were already well covered. In attack, meanwhile, there has been a revolution. Anthony Gordon (€70 million), Karim Adeyemi (€22 million) and Jesse Bisiwu (€8.5 million) have all come in to replace the outgoing Robert Lewandowski, Ferran Torres and Marcus Rashford. Despite those arrivals, club sources have told ESPN that Barça still have the finances to sign a No. 9 this summer. Atlético Madrid's Julián Álvarez was their top target, but with their LaLiga rivals unwilling to transfer the Argentina international, they are having to look elsewhere.
At the back, there is familiarity for now. João Cancelo has joined on a permanent basis, although he was at the club on loan last season. Ronald Araújo has left, too, as has goalkeeper Marc-André ter Stegen, but the rest of the defence remains the same for now.
What have Real Madrid done in the transfer window?
Kirkland: They've done a lot -- with six signings -- even if their window might ultimately be defined by what they didn't do, in failing to sign Rodri. Beyond that, Madrid fans couldn't ask for much more.
Teenage winger Yan Diomande is an exciting, club-record signing at €125 million plus variables, and he will fill the one gap the team had in attack last season, on the right wing. Left back Marc Cucurella, at €60 million, showed at the World Cup that he's one of the best players in his position, and a major upgrade for Madrid. Midfielder Bernardo Silva on a free transfer is a no-brainer, although it's yet to be seen if he can fill the Rodri role in midfield.
Carlos Espí was the best young forward in Spain last season, and he will be an ideal impact sub when chasing a goal. Center back Ibrahima Konaté's value, while also arriving on a free, will depend on which version of him that Madrid are getting: last season's error-prone vintage version, or his previously imperious self. Finally, at right back, arrives Denzel Dumfries from Inter Milan in a €20 million move, although I'm not so sure he is of the requisite quality.
New head coach José Mourinho, despite public denials otherwise, would still like to sign a central midfielder and another defender. Let's see if the club give him what he wants. It's worth noting, too, that Madrid have also brought in some serious money with this summer's outgoings, getting good deals for youngsters Gonzalo García, César Palacios and Jacobo Ortega.
Madrid have gone all in on Mourinho to avoid a third season without a major trophy? Will it work? What happens if it doesn't?
Lowe: Bringing Mourinho back was about nostalgia. The thing about nostalgia is you tend to hold onto the good moments, while the bad ones slip away. Somewhere, deep (or not so deep) down, re-elected club president Florentino Pérez always wanted Mourinho, just about the only coach he ever actually liked, to return. Something, though, always held him back.
The end of Mourinho's tenure at Madrid between 2010 and 2013 had been genuinely unpleasant, and his career since didn't really place him as a candidate to take the vacant Madrid job this summer.
But, two years without a single trophy -- two years of watching Barcelona win LaLiga, two years of an internal breakdown -- overcame that. That made the situation feel a little like it did when Mourinho was last called upon 15(!) years ago.
At Madrid, it's time for a hard man, a leader. His role will be to impose, to bring a single, collective identity, and do so by force if necessary. Will it work? Well, he will have an authority not afforded to his predecessors, and the personality some before him lacked.
Madrid have spent heavily and, while that doesn't include the deep midfielder they so clearly want, it is hard to look at that team and not imagine some success. Kylian Mbappé, Jude Bellingham, Diomande, Vinícius Júnior. It is also possible to imagine it blowing up, too, not least because the problems run deeper than just the bench
Really, it may also depend on how you define "work": you can still argue about the overall evaluation of his last stay, with people reaching wildly contrasting conclusions. One line, pushed by president Pérez, goes that Mourinho set the foundations for the Champions League titles that followed, his supposed shock treatment the start of it all, even if there were casualties. There are likely to be some casualties, of course. So maybe he "wins" even if he doesn't.
If he doesn't win ... he can always be fired. Only, with Mourinho, that trigger won't be pulled so fast, so easily as it was with other managers seen as expendable. Well, what then? They can always give Carlo Ancelotti or Zinedine Zidane a ring.
Mbappé won his second World Cup Golden Boot this summer, but Yamal lifted the trophy. Who is set up to have a better season?
Marsden: The ecosystem for Yamal at Barcelona feels healthier. While he is complemented in attack by players like Raphinha, with Rodri and Pedri operating behind them, there is an acceptance across the squad that he is the star as he goes into his final season as a teenager. That does not always feel true across the Clásico divide, where Mbappé competes for the spotlight with Vinícius, Bellingham and maybe, at some point in the near future, Diomandé.
Despite that, Mbappé has put up incredible numbers at Madrid, winning the Pichichi (top scorer in LaLiga) in each of his two seasons at the club and scoring 86 goals in 103 appearances. However, those two seasons have ended trophyless, so Mourinho's task this season is to get his superstar forwards to buy into a more team-focused mentality, which should benefit everyone in the long-term.
Yamal, meanwhile, has steadily improved each year. Last season, his 27 goal contributions in LaLiga (16 goals, 11 assists) were bettered only by Mbappé (25 goals, 5 assists) and you would imagine, if fit, he will get better again. Mbappé also has the ability to score more, but he has often come up short against Yamal for club and country (France lost to Spain in the semifinals of the World Cup this summer and Euro 2024).
It sets up a fascinating narrative, with the two the undoubted faces of a rivalry that had perhaps lacked a spark since the Lionel Messi-Cristiano Ronaldo era.
Atlético Madrid are already up and running? Could this be their year?
Kirkland: It's a question we ask every season, and it feels like the answer is always the same. Could it be their year? Yes. Will it be? Probably not.
Atlético's consistency under longtime manager Diego Simeone is admirable -- they finished in the top four all 14 seasons, and won LaLiga twice -- and it's unrealistic to expect much more. Atlético have punched above their weight under Simeone. Their wage bill is still less than Barcelona's and significantly less than Madrid's, and that means they aren't competing on a level playing field with the big two.
They've brought in some useful players, in Alejandro Grimaldo -- perhaps the belated solution to Simeone's never-ending search for a left back he rates -- Tottenham Hotspur captain Cristian Romero and Lee Kang-In. For now, they're hanging onto striker Julián Alvarez, who looks less likely to join Barcelona by the day. "When the market closes, we'll know what we have," Simeone said this week. He's right: Let's wait to judge Atlético then.
The most likely scenario is a team that should finish third, while aspiring to more. They will be keeping an eye on the Champions League, with this season's final to be played at their Metropolitano Stadium.
Who wins the title?
Hunter: Madrid. I am deeply suspicious of Mourinho and the negative impact his volatile personality can have on a squad -- evidenced by many of his recent seasons across Europe. Nevertheless, I think Madrid have signed very well and addressed a decent number of the major player issues that were causing them problems. Over the past two years, they dropped many points against rivals a strong Madrid would normally expect to beat -- I think that pattern will end.
Barcelona are obviously good enough to rip this prediction to shreds, but I suspect the Catalan club will be even more focused on Europe this year and, therefore, I give Los Blancos a millimetrical edge.
Lowe: If we're starting where we left off, the answer has to be Barcelona ... But for all the flaws at Madrid, is it that unlikely that they will close the gap this year? Can Madrid really get so much wrong as they did last year? I don't think so.
Madrid don't need to change much to pick up points lost last year, even if they don't become quite as good as Barcelona. Clásicos don't always define titles. Beat everyone else, which they really should, and it can be enough. Never mind the purely football questions just for a moment. Mourinho's arrival, for all the potential issues, for all that we might get some drama, at least signals, at least in theory, a desire for a shift in culture which they need.
Some very simple changes in Madrid's culture feel like they could go a long way. Defeat does that too, a bit. It creates a new mentality. The World Cup is out the way now (personally I think that was a factor last year), and the mindset has changed. There is still an apparent hole in the middle of their midfield, but they can overcome that in LaLiga.
I also wonder about Barcelona's loss of almost 60 goals, with the potential failure to replace it with Alvarez. (You may also notice no mention at all of Atletico, in whom I don't have much faith, I am afraid).
I am leaning to Madrid ... just.
Kirkland: I went with Madrid earlier this summer, although that was when I thought they were signing Rodri. I'll stick with it anyway. Barcelona have been the better team over the past two seasons -- usually overwhelmingly so in head-to-head Clásico meetings -- but the gap in points between the two teams (eight in 2025-26, and four in 2024-25) hasn't been that great given the chaos behind the scenes at the Bernabéu. Mourinho isn't my ideal coach, but he can fix a lot of Madrid's problems.
They have improved the team significantly in the transfer market. Madrid will be hungrier than Barça, who, agreeing with Graham, will be looking at the Champions League.
Marsden: Barcelona. Even though they have been busy this summer, like Madrid, there is more stability across the squad. Rodri improves them massively in my opinion, even if a midfielder wasn't necessarily a glaring need, and Yamal still has levels to go through.
By missing out on Rodri, I also think Madrid failed to fix the biggest problem with their squad. Barça still need a striker, but even with Madrid capable of smashing most of their opponents in Spain -- even with the problems I envisage with Mourinho and the big characters in the squad -- I make them favourites.