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Mateo Kovacic

Mateo Kovacic was the 12th player in the squad last season in number of minutes. He played 1688 minutes distributed in 27 games in La Liga, so we can see how important was the Croatian midfielder in the successful year. For this reason, we expect him to have the same importance next season, despite the new signings of the club.

Mateo Kovacic arrived to Real Madrid in two summers ago from Inter Milan for a transfer fee of €35M. The Croatian was signed to occupy an offensive part of the midfield, perhaps to give some rest to Modric and Toni Kroos. However, his role changed, especially last season, and he was Casemiro’s replacement.

Giving the fact that Real Madrid didn’t any other stopper, Kovacic was the easiest solution when Casemiro was injured or needed to rest. Zidane trusted him and the former Inter Milan player answer with great results. He was a very important part of the team, playing 600 more minutes in La Liga than in his debut year. He only scored one goal, against Real Sociedad at Bernabéu.

The way Kovacic controls the ball and is able to break the rival defence only dribbling is unique in Europe. He doesn’t highlight for his passes, but for the way he dribbles, although is a pure midfielder. Besides, he has great physical skills and can defend as well as attack with success.

James Rodríguez departure gives him some space to enjoy more minutes, but Dani Ceballos signing is a threat. The former Betis midfielder plays in his exact position and many Italian teams are killing to get Kovacic in their squads. Hopefully, Florentino understands that Kovacic is a great promising player -he’s only 23 years old- and he should be the next Luka Modric, who is over 30.

Overall, like the rest of the team, we can say Kovacic performance during the season was great. He stood up when Casemiro was injured in November, playing a great game at Calderón in the derby, and also in the final weeks, when Zidane decided to rotate the team a lot. In his third season in the club, he should enjoy more minutes and try to look even more to the rival’s goal.

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The agreement was sealed last Saturday but now both clubs have made it official. Dani Ceballos joins Real Madrid in a six-year contract and the player will be unveiled on Thursday the 20th of July at Santiago Bernabéu. In this way, Real Madrid signed another young and talented player from the U-21 national team.

The war between Real Madrid and Barcelona for Dani Ceballos had Florentino Pérez as a winner. Los Blancos secured another player for the future tying up Dani Ceballos, who played at Betis for his whole career and he made great performances in the last two seasons as a creative midfielder.

James Rodríguez left the club this week to join Bayern Munich and made some room for Dani Ceballos. He would be a great replacement for Toni Kroos and Luka Modric but it’s uncertain how many minutes he would enjoy in the club. At the beginning, the club thought about giving him on loan one year to Betis, but the player rejected this option, so Zidane has to make space for him in the team. And it won’t be easy, taking in consideration that he has Marcos Llorente, Mateo Kovacic or even Isco in this part of the pitch.

Real Madrid released a statement with the agreement: “Real Madrid C. F. and Real Betis Balompié have agreed the transfer of Dani Ceballos, who has signed a six-year contract with the club”, said the club.

The player will be unveiled at 1pm on Thursday the 20th of July at Santiago Bernabéu together with Florentino Pérez. Then, he will travel to the United States to join the rest of the team with the rest of U-21 players.

Real Madrid paid €16.5M to Betis, €1.5M more than his release clause. Both clubs negotiated in the last days about how to pay this clause but they finally reached an agreement.

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Antonio Conte is decided to sign Danilo in this week and Chelsea are bidding for the Brazilian right back. Real Madrid are expecting at least €35M, but the London club is not willing to arrive to that number. In the meantime, Real Madrid are thinking in a possible replacement and they’ve spotted Thomas Meunier, currently playing at PSG.

Some weeks ago, we informed that Juventus were really interested in getting Danilo after the departure of Dani Alves. However, the Italian team offer was very low, so Florentino Pérez discarded the operation. At the same time, another team join the bid, Chelsea, because Antonio Conte was interested in getting him on board. The Italian manager wants to find a replacement for Victor Moses in his five-men defense.

At this point, Danilo is training with the rest of the men at UCLA, in California, but he’s waiting for news about his future. WIth Carvajal closing the road of the line-up, the former Porto player could be willing to leave the club, especially if Chelsea is his new destination.

Real Madrid would need to find a replacement if Danilo leaves. Real Sociedad player Odriozola was in the wishing list, but, according to MARCA, Thomas Meunier is also a target for Los Blancos. The Belgian right back plays for PSG, but the French club has just unveiled Dani Alves, who will be the owner of the right wing. For this reason, Meunier could be an easy target for Los Blancos. He’s only 26 years old and has a wide experience in a top flight club. Besides, he has great offensive skills, very important for a Real Madrid right back.

At the moment, Zinedine Zidane called Tejero and Achraf Hakimi in the list for the USA pre-tour. The manager wanted to see in action both youngster to decide afterwards if they could fit in the squad. Achraf could be Danilo’s replacement, but we’ll only know this after the pre-season tour.

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Marco Asensio

The number ‘10’ in football is reserved to stars. Usually, the best player of the team, the playmaker wears it on his t-shirt and now this number is vacant at Real Madrid. With James Rodríguez departure, Los Blancos need a player who takes responsibility for it and Marco Asensio is the chosen one.

Luis Figo, Mesut Özil or James Rodríguez wore this number at Real Madrid. Now, the Colombian playmaker is gone to Bayern Munich, but Los Blancos supporters shouldn’t be worried because there are many players who can take over his role in the squad.

Isco has similar skills and he showed he can do it better than the Colombian playmaker. The Spanish player stepped up last season, with impressive games until leading the team in the Champions League final. Now, one doubts about his quality and his importance in the team.

However, all the lights are pointing to Marco Asensio. The youngster was impressive against Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals and he scored a goal in the final against Juventus. In the Euro U-21 Tournament he lead the Spanish team into the final and, after his first season with Los Blancos, we all expect him to shine from the beginning.

For this reason, Asensio has to be the new talented player who lead the attacking line and fight with the BBC for a position. Although he is very young -he’s only 21-, Asensio is prepared to play often in the line-up and offer solutions to Zinedine Zidane in the attacking line.

As opposite as what happened last year, Asensio will join the group later, on the 20th of July, so he might miss the first games of the season, including the European Supercup. On the contrary, last year he started very strong, with goals against Sevilla in the European Supercup and against Real Sociedad in the La Liga debut.

Asensio will have many competitors in the squad. Apart from Isco and the BBC, Los Blancos signed Dani Ceballos, so he’ll need to step up and raise his level to show all his potential. He could be the new ‘10’, the new playmaker, who makes the difference in the team.

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Real Madrid signed Theo Hernández and Dani Ceballos -we are still awaiting for the official confirmation-, but the Galáctico is still to arrive. Los Blancos don’t have room at the moment for a great player in the attacking line, because Álvaro Morata might stay in the club after his frustrated deal with Manchester United. However, they have not forgotten Kylian Mbappé, the most desired player in Europe.

Kylian Mbappé is a very important player for Mónaco, the new French champion. But he’s important for the whole country and even Prince Albert II spoke about him and the possibilities for staying in the club: “Even though Zidane has said that [Mbappe] will have plenty of game time at Real Madrid, [he won’t go] to a big club where he isn’t certain of being in the starting line-up,” he said.

In this way, Prince Albert II tried to convince the player to stay and lead the new project of the team. The leader is worried about the stars leaving the club after their successful year. At the moment, Bernardo Silva went to Manchester City, but the other players are staying in the French club.

“In my opinion I don’t think that it will happen and I think this is also the opinion of [Monaco vice president] Vadim Vasilyev”, prince Albert II said about the possible transfer to Real Madrid.

The young player is receiving many pressures because PSG are accelerating to get him on board. Unai Emery wants him in the French capital, but Monaco know that this cannot happen if they want to compete for the trophy again.

In the meantime, Real Madrid have not forgotten Mbappé, but right now it’s impossible to close a deal. Although James Rodríguez left the squad, Dani Ceballos will be his substitute and, with the BBC and Morata in the front, Mbappé has no room. However, Florentino Pérez and Zidane know that he could be one of the best players in Europe in the next 10 years, so they don’t want to miss the opportunity to tie him up.

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Real Madrid had their first training session on Wednesday working the physical aspects with Antonio Pintus at UCLA University in California. Los Blancos went back after that to the Beverly Hill Hotel to rest before more training sessions, but their calm was interrupted by a bomb threat at UCLA University.

At 22.00 hours, local time, the university was evacuated because of a bomb threat, the authorities announced. A suspicious parcel was found in the recreational area, so they decided to let know the students and the police evacuated the housing area. Besides, they received a call with a threat.

“The Hill is in emergency. Please evacuate to Drake Stadium. Please retweet and share. More information will be provided as it comes in”, said the University to their students via Twitter.

Immediately, the students gather at the stadium and left their rooms, following the authorities instructions.

Luckily, this was just a threat and nothing worse happen at UCLA. Real Madrid trained for the very first time on Wednesday there and they should be back on Thursday to the Universiity of California to continue training and preparing the season. Apart from Los Blancos, Manchester United are also training there, with José Mourinho as the boss.

Real Madrid should spend the next two weeks training at UCLA University because they have really good training field for Los Blancos to be ready for the competitive season. In between, they will play their first friendly games of the season, the first one will be against Manchester United. All the members of the first squad are training there, with the exception of Cristiano Ronaldo and the U-21 players. Besides, Zidane called 8 youngsters.

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Jorge Mendes is the ‘superagent’ in Europe and once upon a time he almost owned Real Madrid. Or perhaps we should say he was the ‘superagent’ because now Mino Raiola -Paul Pogba or Gigi Donnarumma among others- moves more players in the market. On Tuesday, it was made official James Rodríguez’s departure to Bayern Munich, another Mendes player leaving the club.

After these first weeks of summer, Jorge Mendes only has one player at Real Madrid: Cristiano Ronaldo. This is obviously his main asset and, together with José Mourinho, he started building his empire from here. But now this empire has fallen down, at least in Madrid, and we could see the agent coming to the Spanish capital to the court, and not to any luxurious hotel, to speak about the tax fraud some of his players have been accused.

Once upon a time, he was the king at Santiago Bernabéu. José Mourinho, Ángel di María, Fabio Coentrao, Ricardo Carvalho or Pepe were represented by Gestifute. He was even able to have some youngsters at Castilla like Alipio, Fabinho or Pedro Mendes. At that time, some sources say that Florentino Pérez was pushed very hard to sign Radamel Falcao, whose agent is also Mendes, but the president refused the deal because, otherwise, the club would be directed by Mendes. Falcao ended up playing for Manchester United in a very poor season.

James Rodríguez wanted to thank Jorge Mendes on Tuesday after his departure from Madrid. “The best”, the Colombian playmaker said to his agent with a picture of both in the social media. The deal looks quite good actually, because he’s leaving on loan and it’s uncertain how much money would bring this operation to Real Madrid.

The Colombian playmaker wanted also to thank Real Madrid supporters for these three years in the Spanish capital with a beautiful video in his social media profiles: “There were three wonderful years. I’m happy for wearing this t-shirt, the one a put with a lot of proud […]. Thanks for everything!”, James Rodríguez said. Mendes moved another asset out of Madrid.

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Florentino Pérez wants to continue with his policy of signing young and Spanish players in the squad. So far, we’ve seen this season Jesús Vallejo, Borja Mayoral and Marcos Llorente arriving to the team. Besides, Dani Ceballos has a deal with Los Blancos but has to be made official and Theo Hernández, who has the French nationality, also joined the club. Now, they continue to look into the market to see new talents.

The last footballer to appear in this list is Álvaro Odriozola, also a member of the Spanish Under 21 national team that was runner-up in the last Euro Championship in Poland. He plays as a right back at Real Sociedad, where he was raised, and he shocked everybody last year with his first appearances in the top division.

Odriozola recently renewed his contract with Real Sociedad until 2022 and they set a release clause of €40M. According to Cadena Ser, Real Madrid are interested in the player but they are not thinking in paying the release clause, but they would like to negotiate a lower price with his club. Recently, Los Blancos had to pay also a very high transfer fee to Real Sociedad for Asier Illarramendi, who was a completely failure.

Zidane likes Odriozola after his last season at Real Sociedad. He played 15 games, starting in January, when he joined the first team. Since his arrival, he was the owner of the right wing in the superb season made by the Basque team, who got the ticket to play in Europe in the next season.

Los Blancos are already thinking in a replacement for Danilo, who could join Juventus in the next few days. He has a very good offer from the Italian champions and it would be hard to keep the Brazilian in the squad. Dani Carvajal is the star in this position and Danilo would have to understand a secondary role. For this reason, Odriozola could meet the requirements for the position: young, eager to learn and Spanish.

Zidane has other options to replace Danilo, in case he finally leaves. For instance, Achraf Hakimi was the main candidate for this position after making his debut with the first team. He also called Tejero to the pre-season at the United States. So both youngster could come up to the first team and replace Danilo in the squad.

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achrafhakimi

Real Madrid squad travelled to the United States to start three weeks of training to be ready for the first two titles of the season, the Supercups. Los Blancos will play on the 8th of August against Manchester United at Skopje, their first clash of the season. Now, it’s time to prepare physically for a challenging season at UCLA, the University of Los Angeles. Obviously, James Rodríguez was not on that plane, after signing with Bayern Munich.

Together with the squad, Zinedine Zidane has included eight youngsters in the list. Four from Castilla –Luca Zidane, Achraf, Álvaro Tejero and Luismi Quezada– and four other from the Youth team –Manu Hernando, Óscar Rodríguez, Franchu and Dani Gómez-. The eighth player is Luca Zidane, who could be Real Madrid third goalkeeper this season if Rubén Yáñez leaves the club.

We can also find Achraf Hakimi who was pointed out to be Danilo’s replacement in case the right back left the club to join Juventus. He will have to fight with Álvaro Tejero who was also on the plane.

All the players are available with the exception of Cristiano Ronaldo, who will join the group on the 2nd of August after playing the Confederations Cup. The Portuguese player hasn’t spoken yet about his problems with the Tax Authorities and his intention to leave the club, although Florentino Pérez expects him to stay.

There aren’t also available the U-21 players who were present in the European Championship: Jesús Vallejo, Asensio, Llorente and Mayoral. They will join the squad on the 20th of July. Dani Ceballos should be present that day as well, but we are still awaiting for the official confirmation of his signing by the club.

The president Florentino Pérez will also join the pre-season tour on the 20th of July, together with José Ángel Sánchez. Both will be working in Madrid and they should be present in Dani Ceballos’ unveiling, an act that should take place on the 20th of July.

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Real Madrid players are back to the work and yesterday they met at Valdebebas for the medical tests. On Tuesday they will take the plane at 15:30 local time to travel to Los Angeles, where they are going to train the next few weeks. Among these players were Daniel Carvajal, who spoke in his local town about the season to start.

The right back is ready for new challenges, although the team has just finished one of the best seasons of their history: “We have to reset ourselves, we want to win everything”, the defender commented. Real Madrid have to fight for all six titles this year, starting with the European Supercup and the Spanish Supercup during the summer.

According to Carvajal, it was very important the manager for the success: “Zizou made us being together, so we are all in the same direction”, the right back said about his current coach.

Besides, Carvajal talked about the difficulty of the new season: “We have great rivals, but the most important thing for us is to have rhythm and gasoline for the season that is ahead of us”.

After this event with kids in his local town, Leganés, the Real Madrid players went to Valdebebas for the physical tests with his colleagues. We could see again James Rodríguez, who has the option to join Bayern Munich, and Álvaro Morata, who missed the opportunity to sign for Manchester United but he’s now a Chelsea target.
Among the new players we could also see Theo Hernández, who was unveiled on Monday evening at Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. The president, Florentino Pérez, will travel to the United States on the 20th of July, the same date when the rest of the players -the youngsters who played the Euro U-21 Championship- will join the team.

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