Atletico join the queue for Grealish, who has not kicked a ball since January

Atletico Madrid have joined the list of clubs looking at Jack Grealish, after a report in The Sun on 3 August, with Diego Simeone said to be interested in a player whose pressing and defensive work he rates more highly than most managers have. Everton want him back on loan. Aston Villa, the club he captained and left, are circling too. There have also been enquiries from Saudi Arabia and MLS.

It is a long queue for a footballer who has not played since January.

The foot, not the queue

Grealish suffered a stress fracture in his foot during Everton’s 1-0 win at Villa Park on 18 January. Surgery followed, his season ended there, and with it went any chance of being in Thomas Tuchel’s England squad for the World Cup. He turned 30 with the worst possible timing.

When Manchester City left him out of their 11-day pre-season tour of Hong Kong and South Korea, the story was written up as a snub. Grealish pushed back on that himself on 29 July, pointing out that he is still recovering and is not training yet. That is the detail every one of these transfer stories has to get past. A loan, a permanent sale, a rotation role under Simeone: none of it is a conversation any sporting director can finish while the medical department is still the department in charge.

What Everton actually saw

The reason three clubs are interested at all is what happened before the injury. Grealish went to Everton on loan for the 2025-26 season, produced four assists in Everton’s first three league games, and won the Premier League’s Player of the Month award for August. David Moyes played him on the left and let him drift, which is roughly what he had been asking for at City for four years.

He finished the season with two goals and six assists in 22 appearances in all competitions. Those are not overwhelming numbers. They came in a team that spent much of the campaign scrapping, and they stopped in January, which makes them look thinner than the eye test suggested at the time.

City’s side of it

City signed him from Villa in 2021 for £100 million, a British record that has aged into a punchline, and he is under contract at the Etihad until 30 June 2027. That last year is the whole problem. A club selling a 30-year-old on those wages with 12 months left has almost no leverage, and City know it.

There is a new manager to factor in as well. Enzo Maresca took over from Pep Guardiola on 29 June on a three-year deal, and a new manager occasionally sees something in a player his predecessor had stopped picking. Maresca has worked at City twice before, so he has watched Grealish up close in both versions, the £100 million arrival and the man who could not get on the pitch.

Where this probably lands

Atletico look the most interesting of the three and probably the least likely. Simeone’s teams do ask their wide players to run back, and Grealish does run back, but Atletico are not short of forwards, and he could be signing up to rotate. Everton is the comfortable answer, and comfort might be worth something to a player who has spent six months in a rehab room. Villa would be the emotional one, which in transfer business is usually a warning rather than a recommendation.

None of it moves until he can train. The window shuts on 1 September, and right now the person with the most say in where Jack Grealish plays this season is whoever signs off on his foot.

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