A release clause is a clause in a player’s contracts that deliberately requires a club to agree to an offer of a pre-determine contractual amount expressly set out in the contract from the offering club. If the amount in the release clause is triggered by the purchasing club, the player will be entitled to speak to the club.

A buy-out clause on the other hand is somehow related to a release clause. A buy-out clause is a mandatory part of most contract in Spanish teams. They are usually set high and are above the present market value of the player having the contract. The buy-out clause simply implies that the player will have to pay the said amount in his clause in order to leave the club but just as we know, the purchasing club usually buy the contract through the player i.e. they transfer the money to the club through the player. 

Ever since PSG triggered Neymar's release clause when he was playing at Barcelona, a lot of Spanish teams have extended the contracts of their valuable players and spiked up the buy-out clause of these valuable players.

1. Karim Benzema: He signed a one year contract extension with Real Madrid and the club added a buy-out clause of 1billion USD which is approximately 847GBD. This contract tie him to the club until the summer of 2022.

2. Antoine Griezmann: Having spent 102millon pounds precuring the Frenchman, Barcelona chipped in a buy-out clause of 800 millions Euros (677million Pounds). This was no surprise to the fans after Neymar's release clause was triggered by PSG few years back.

3. Luka Modric and Brahim Diaz: they might be at opposite end of their career at Real but Los Blanco doesn't want to take any chances losing one of the most important player in their squad and one of the most promising youngstar. Both of their contracts will expire June, 2021 but the club is yet to offer him an extension or a new deal. They both have a release clause of 750million Euros.

5. Lionel Messi: He is a player that needs no introduction. Holding the record of most official goal for a single club and most Ballon d'Or, Messi's release clause is â‚¬700 million (£630m/$825m). This high clause was included in the four-years extension contract he signed in 2017. He is now open to discussing with other club prior to the contract expiring at the summer of 2021. Real Madrid Isco, Vinicius Jr and Marco Asensio also have a â‚¬700 million release clause in their contracts.

9. Gareth Bale and Gerald Pique: They both have a hefty sum of £423 million clause on their contract.

Some of these players contract are expiring this summer and are free to leave the club.

Follow for more up

Olympiacos, Ferencváros, Midtjylland and Dinamo Zagreb are among 20 teams who have been guaranteed a spot in the group stage of one of UEFA’s three club competitions.

This follows their victories in the UEFA Champions League second qualifying round ties on Wednesday.

In the second legs, PSV Eindhoven completed a 7-2 aggregate win over Galatasaray, while Crvena zvezda and Sparta Praha both overturned first-leg disadvantages to qualify for the UEFA Champions League third qualifying round.

Celtic were dumped out by Midtjylland. The Scottish giants have been sent packing for the group stage again, after recent exits against AEK Athens, Cluj and Ferencvaros

The third qualifying round fixtures will be played August 3rd & 4th and 10th.

League path
PSV Eindhoven vs Midtjylland
Spartak Moskva vs Benfica
Genk vs Shakhtar Donetsk
Monaco vs Sparta Praha

Losing sides in the league path move into the UEFA Europa League group stage.

Champions path
Dinamo Zagreb vs Legia Warszawa
CFR Cluj vs Young Boys
Olympiacos vs Ludogorets
Crvena zvezda vs Sheriff Tiraspol
Malmö vs Rangers
Ferencváros vs Slavia Praha

Losing teams in the champions path enter the UEFA Europa League play-offs, from which the winners reach the UEFA Europa League group stage and the losers transfer to the UEFA Europa Conference League group stage