Madrid can mark an era… (Last Tango, opinion)

“ANDh, you have robbery…”, We used to complain as kids, on the little pitch, when the game was about to start and we saw that all the good guys from the neighbourhood were on the opposite side. There was no way. And in Spain, in Europe and the world the same thing happens with the Real Madrid. Mbappé, Vinicius, Bellingham, Rodrygo, Valverde, Modric, Rudiger, Carvajal, Militão, Alaba, Courtois… All on the same side. That’s not worth it…

With the arrival of Kylian Mbappéthe white team completes a roster that is disproportionately superior to that of any other club on the planet. Star names, a crack in each position and a bank of guarantees, capabilities that, combined with youth (with the exception of the wise Luka Modric, who continues to show glimpses of his technique and intelligence) presuppose a long reign in the coming years. And there are some names in the pipeline that invite us to think of a bright future: Arda Guler, Endrick. And others who come in and add up like Brahim Díaz, Lucas Vázquez or the goalkeeper Lunin.

The quality of the squad real Madrid Plus the club’s winning mystique leads one to think that it could take home the seven titles it will contest in this 2024-2025 season, like a poker player who wins the top game, stretches out his arms and drags a mountain of chips behind him. How would he go about losing a 38-match league…? FC Barcelona, ​​in 2009, and Bayern Munich, in 2020, have the honour of being the only clubs to have achieved the sextet, that is, the League, Cup and National Super Cup, Champions League, European Super Cup and Club World Cup.

Madrid could equal and even surpass them because from this year, in December, the Intercontinental Cup will return, which was previously played by the champions of Europe and South America, only that Fifa, always insatiable with Infantinowill add the champion of each continent. The European representative – in this case Madrid – enters directly to the final, while the Libertadores champion will have to play a preliminary phase against the Concacaf team. In a final it will be difficult to beat Ancelotti’s eleven.

Who already took home the first jewel of the possible necklace: the European Super Cup, by defeating Atalanta 2-0.

The thing about the Atalanta of Gian Piero Gasperini, a well-functioning team with discreet players from eleven countries. From each town a countryman. It is commendable to reach a final with the Madridit’s like running a race Formula One with a Renault 12 and finish sixth. Good.

For Madrid it was another day at the office. Mbappé He quickly learned what this club is all about: in his debut in this shirt he was an international champion at club level, something he had not experienced in ten years between Monaco and Paris Saint Germain.

How did Kylian play…? Weak, but he scored a goal, which Bellingham set up for him. An easy goal, but an excellent baptism for everything that is to come. As expected, Vinicius did not give him the left wing, Kylian meekly accepted being number 9a position in which he cannot use his speed and which takes away space for his explosion in the race. He saw the crosses pass over him from right to left and vice versa (he is not a header) and he was stuck between the centre-backs. In his favour he has the fact that Real Madrid generates a lot, between Rodrygo, Vinicius and Bellingham they will always have chances to score. The good thing is that he is in tune with Vinicius, they do not repel each other.

About MbappéThere is a clear interest in claiming that “he didn’t cost a penny”. False. It’s a technicality: he actually paid 150 million euros for a signing bonus, but he didn’t receive it. Paris Saint Germain but the player, because he is already free from the French club.

Real Madrid fans claim that they are a prudent institution that obtains galacticos at a good price and that the real millionaires full of stars are the Manchester City and PSG. Nonsense. These two are very far from the power of Madrid and a brief example is that, of the five main candidates for the Golden Ballfour of them are Real Madrid players: Vinicius, Bellingham, Carvajal and Mbappé, in that order. The remaining one is Rodri, from Manchester City, who should really receive it.

The current roster of the Spanish multi-champion is the result of a virtuous, almost brilliant process of signings and sales. After giving their all at the Casa Blanca, they were introduced to the veterans and were thanked for the services rendered to Casillas, Pepe, Keylor Navas, Cristiano Ronaldo, Sergio Ramos, Varane, Casemiro, Marcelo, Isco, Bale, Benzema, Asensio, Kroos, Nacho… The foundations of that triumphant structure.

Without having a sports management, being the everything of the club, Florentino Perez He masterfully moved the pieces, carefully, year after year, rejuvenating the squad without losing hierarchy, while filling the trophy cabinets and converting the Bernabéu in the most modern and impressive temple in the world.

And, above individual talent, everyone who arrives is imbued with the character of the club, the one that was established Di Stefano: win, win, win. “The word draw was not in his vocabulary,” says José Santamaría, the Uruguayan defender who was his teammate for years.

He is defined by a memory of Pachín, a great defender who shared several seasons with the ‘Saeta’. “One afternoon playing for Osasuna, I marked him very well, in the first half I hardly let him touch the ball and when we were going to the dressing room he came up to me and said: ‘Would you like to play for Madrid…?’. Of course, I answered. It stayed there. Two months later Ber
nabéu called me; they signed me. Then I found out that Don Santiago consulted him about all the signings, or he suggested this or that one that seemed good to him. Alfredo was a tremendous winner, I never saw anyone like him. Let’s say we went to play in Santander for the Copa del Rey and we won 5-0; on the way back, on the train, he sat down with each one for five minutes; he came and said to you: ‘Look, the series is not over, eh…’. And we all answered the same: Alfredo, relax, we won 5-0 away… But he insisted: ‘Look, the series is not over.’ He didn’t want anyone to give up, he didn’t admit defeat.” Others say that, after the first half, Madrid He was losing or playing badly, and he was capable of insulting the entire locker room to get them to react.

He Madrid had won only two leagues, in 1932 and 1933; they had gone twenty-one years without winning the title, they ruled the Barcelona, ​​Atletico Madrid, Athletic Bilbao, Valencia. But in the first championship of Alfred wearing the merengue jersey, champions. And in his eleven seasons at Chamartín he marked an impressive supremacy: 8 leagues, a Copa del Rey, 5 European Cups, 2 Latin Cups and an Intercontinental Cup. That is why, in the Bernabéu museum, the murals, videos and memories pay special tribute to the one who paved the way to glory.

Alfred placed it as the most successful club in the world. Seventy years later, that almost ferocious spirit of victory remains intact.

Last Tango

Jorge Barraza

For THE TIME