Endrick is a Real Madrid player again. The Brazilian forward spent the back half of last season on loan at Olympique Lyonnais, scored eight goals there, and returned to Madrid wearing squad number 9. He turned 20 on July 21, 2026, and whether he stays past this transfer window is the live question in Spain.
| Detail | What the official sources say |
| Full name | Endrick Felipe Moreira de Sousa |
| Born | July 21, 2006, in Brasilia, Brazil |
| Height and weight | 5 ft 8 in, 148 lbs |
| Position | Forward, mainly a central striker |
| Club right now | Real Madrid, squad number 9 |
| Last loan | Olympique Lyonnais, January to June 2026 |
| Signed from | Palmeiras, agreed December 2022, joined July 2024 |
| Reported fee | About $69 million with add-ons, never confirmed by either club |
| Brazil record | 21 caps, 4 goals |
Key takeaways
- He is on Real Madrid’s books for 2026-27. The club’s own squad page lists him, and LaLiga has him registered with the number 9 shirt.
- The Lyon loan worked. Twenty-one games, 1,631 minutes, eight goals and eight assists in six months.
- His Real Madrid minutes have been thin: 368 in LaLiga across 2024-25, plus 141 in the Champions League, then 99 across all competitions before the loan.
- Brazil took him to the 2026 World Cup. He came off the bench four times for 111 minutes and did not score.
- No club ever published the transfer money. The figure quoted everywhere was around $69 million once add-ons were counted.
Which club does he play for now?
Real Madrid. That answer needed checking this summer, because the last time most American fans saw him he was starting in Ligue 1 for Lyon.
Three separate official sources line up. Real Madrid’s first-team squad page lists him among the forwards. LaLiga has him registered to Real Madrid with the number 9 for 2026-27. Lyon’s own 2026-27 roster no longer carries his name, which is what you would expect once a loan expires.
What happens next is the wrinkle. On July 28, 2026, ESPN ran a segment asking whether Jose Mourinho, now the Real Madrid coach, will keep him. Another loan is being talked about. Nothing has been signed, and until it is, he is a Madrid player. If you follow moves like this one, our football transfer coverage tracks the same window day by day.
The Palmeiras deal that had to wait 19 months
Real Madrid announced the agreement on December 15, 2022. The wording of that official club statement is the part people forget. He could join Real Madrid only once he reached the age of majority, in July 2024. He was 16 at the time.
That delay was not a negotiating quirk. Soccer’s transfer rules bar clubs from signing players out of another country before they turn 18. Exceptions are narrow, and a Brazilian teenager moving to Spain does not fit them. So the deal sat for a year and a half while he kept playing in Sao Paulo.
He did not waste it. In two seasons of Brazilian league soccer, he made 38 appearances and scored 14 goals, 11 of them in 2023 alone across 1,570 minutes. Two Brazilian league titles, a Brazilian Super Cup and two Campeonato Paulista trophies came before he could legally board the plane.
The money has never been published. Neither Real Madrid nor Palmeiras put a number in writing, then or since. Reporting at the time settled on a package worth roughly 60 million euros with the add-ons counted. According to the Federal Reserve’s H.10 foreign exchange release, the euro was worth $1.1448 on July 2, 2026, which puts that package near $69 million in dollars. Treat the figure as reported, not confirmed.
Endrick’s Real Madrid minutes, season by season
This is the number that explains everything else. Two seasons on Madrid’s books produced less playing time than half a season in France.
| Season | Club | Competition | Games | Minutes | Goals |
| 2024-25 | Real Madrid | LaLiga | 22 | 368 | 1 |
| 2024-25 | Real Madrid | Champions League | 9 | 141 | 1 |
| 2025-26 | Real Madrid | All competitions | 3 | 99 | 0 |
| 2025-26 | Lyon | Ligue 1 | 16 | 1,222 | 5 |
| 2025-26 | Lyon | Coupe de France | 3 | 252 | 2 |
| 2025-26 | Lyon | Europa League | 2 | 157 | 1 |
In 2024-25, he appeared 22 times in LaLiga but started only three of those games. That averages under 17 minutes a night. His debut came on August 25, 2024, in a 3-0 win over Valladolid, and Real Madrid’s site still lists it on his profile.
The following season was worse. Three games, 99 minutes, no goals, and 11 of those minutes came in LaLiga. By January, he was gone.
What the Lyon loan actually produced
Six months in France gave him more soccer than 18 months in Spain had.
Across Ligue 1, the Coupe de France and the Europa League, he played 21 games, started 19 of them, and logged 1,631 minutes. Eight goals, eight assists. The assist count is the interesting one, because the knock on him in Madrid was that he only ever arrived in the box as a finisher.
A red card in Ligue 1 and three yellows came with it, a fair marker of how hard he was being asked to play. Lyon used him as a starter, not a closer.
Careers like this one turn on exactly that difference. We cover the pattern often in our athlete profiles, and it repeats: young forwards do not develop in 15-minute cameos.
Brazil, and a World Cup that ended in the round of 16
By ESPN’s competition-by-competition records, he has 21 caps and four goals for Brazil. Those came across World Cup qualifying, the 2024 Copa America, friendlies and the 2026 tournament itself. Three of the four goals arrived in a burst of friendlies in 2024, when he was 17 and 18.
He made the 2026 squad. He did not start a game in it.
Brazil opened with a 1-1 draw against Morocco on June 13, then beat Haiti 3-0 and Scotland 3-0 to win the group. They saw off Japan 2-1 in the round of 32. On July 5, 2026, at MetLife Stadium, Norway knocked them out 2-1. Erling Haaland scored twice, Neymar answered from the penalty spot, and that was the tournament. Spain beat Argentina in the final on July 19.
His own line reads four appearances, all from the bench, 111 minutes, three shots and no goals. For a striker at his first World Cup, that is a footnote rather than a breakthrough, and it is the part most profiles leave out. More of our sport coverage from the tournament works through how the other favorites went out.
The 2026-27 outlook, and why 20 is early
Madrid’s attack got more crowded, not less. Kylian Mbappe wears 10, Vinicius Junior 7, Rodrygo 11, Gonzalo Garcia 16 and Franco Mastantuono 30. ESPN reports the club is closing a deal for Yan Diomande from RB Leipzig worth about $155 million. That is a lot of money standing between a 20-year-old and the field.
Three outcomes are realistic before the window shuts:
- Stay and fight for the number 9 role. Mourinho has historically trusted a lead striker, and Madrid have no natural one under contract long term.
- Another loan, this time with a start guarantee. The Lyon spell proved he travels well, and clubs have noticed.
- A permanent sale with a buy-back. Rarer, and Madrid have shown no appetite for it.
Here is the context that gets skipped. A 2021 study in Frontiers in Psychology analyzed 1,981 players nominated for major individual awards. It found forwards averaged 25.99 years old at nomination, and put their peak nearer 27. That leaves him six or seven years short. Judging a striker’s ceiling at 20 is judging him at the start.
The number that matters this season is minutes, not goals. If he plays 1,500 of them somewhere, the rest tends to follow.
What to watch next
Two dates decide this. Madrid’s preseason friendlies through early August tell you whether Mourinho starts him, and the closing days of the window tell you whether anyone gets a firm answer. Our editors log every confirmed move rather than the rumors, and you can read how Gamerlume checks its facts before it publishes.
Bookmark this page. We update it the moment the club or the league changes his status.
Conclusion
Endrick’s career remains a story of potential rather than finished achievement. After a productive loan spell at Lyon, he has returned to Real Madrid with valuable first-team experience, but his biggest challenge is still earning consistent minutes in one of the world’s deepest squads. At just 20 years old, time is firmly on his side, and history suggests that many elite forwards reach their peak several years later.
Whether he stays in Madrid or heads out on another loan, the 2026-27 season will be defined less by goals than by playing time. If he continues to develop with regular minutes, Endrick has every opportunity to become the striker Real Madrid expected when they invested in him.
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FAQ
Yes. Real Madrid’s official squad page and LaLiga’s registration both list him for 2026-27, with the number 9 shirt. His Lyon loan ended in June 2026.
Neither club has ever published the fee. Reporting at the time put the package near $69 million with add-ons included, which is the figure repeated since.
Eight, in 21 games across three competitions, with eight assists alongside them. Five of the goals came in Ligue 1.
His 20th birthday was July 21, 2026. Real Madrid and ESPN list him at 5 ft 8 in and 148 lbs. That is small for a central striker, and part of why he plays off the shoulder of the last defender.
Yes, he did. Four substitute appearances, 111 minutes, no goals, before Norway beat Brazil 2-1 in the round of 16 on July 5, 2026.
It is open. Another loan is being discussed, and Mourinho has not settled his attack yet. Nothing is agreed.
