La Real has in Martin Zubimendi (Donostia, 23 years old) a priceless jewel. He responds to the lineage of soccer players overshadowed by others with more fame and who carry the wool with the necessary brilliance for the proper functioning of a team. Without making so much noise, the youth squad has become, with all of the law, Imanol’s referential pivot. At his orders, football is organized in the machine room that manufactures another classification for Europe. The third in a row.
Taking into account that Real beat Getafe (2-1) on April 28, 2019, tomorrow marks exactly three years since Martin Zubimendi made his debut with the first team. It was in the second part of that match, Anoeta was half reformed and the player from San Sebastian replaced Rubén Pardo in the second part. A symbolism comparable to when Illarramendi replaced Diego Rivas in his debut in the First Division. Generations follow one another in football, the law of life.
Zubimendi, a new crack in the Real
Three years after appearing in society, Zubimendi stands out established for all purposes, assuming gallons in each vertical driving, in each opening to the band. He is by far the pivot who plays the most this season and only Le Normand (3,891), the goalkeeper Remiro (3,330) and Merino (3,232), the coach’s alter ego, exceed Zubimendi’s 2,877 minutes between the League, the Cup and the Europe League. He is the fourth player who plays the most, which is soon said.
Zubimendi is the owner of a full-fledged irruption within this Real. It is difficult for a young man with the air of an apprentice to add so many games in his first steps. His debut three years ago was the isolated prelude to a barbaric consolidation. Since football resumed after the 2020 confinement, the Gipuzkoan midfielder has played 93 games. In a month and a half, in June, two years will have passed. Not even cornerstones of the project such as Oyarzabal or Le Normand managed to play so much in the same space of time. The one from Eibar 72 games in his first two years and the French central defender, 58.
Le Normand and Oyarzabal are the only two members of this squad from Sanse with more participation than Zubimendi in his first three years at Real. The attacker played 118 games and the Briton 108 in the same margin that the player from San Sebastian needed to reach 94. Three springs to hold the structure of this Real, each one in its own style, as if they were the Doric, the Ionic and the Corinthian .
Your presence is noted
Whether as a starter (29 games) or as a substitute (13), Zubimendi is a true regular in Imanol’s plans in his second season as a full member of the first team. He has only missed four official appointments and has given a good account that his presence is noticeable. A positive symptom for a midfielder, a figure called to be a protagonist.
In Imanol’s decalogue, football has to be distributed from midfield and Zubimendi responds frequently. La Real has only won one of the four games in which it has been absent this season and it was against Zamora in the Cup. The other three ended in a draw: against Atlético de Madrid at the Metropolitano, Getafe at Anoeta and Leipzig at Red Bull Arena. The rest are 20 wins, 11 draws and another 11 losses for Real with Zubimendi in command of operations. He is a last generation crack
pivots
Leave Illarra and Guevara in the shade
The explosion of Martin Zubimendi favors that there are victims in the race to be the starting pivot of the Real. The review of the minutes that each one adds up to five games before the end of the season clarifies the panorama, it is a treatise on where Imanol has gone when choosing his strong man for such a specific position. Zubimendi’s 2,877 minutes counting the League, Cup and Europa League are a landslide compared to Guevara’s 857 or Illarramendi’s 186 who could not debut until the first quarter of this year. The captain saw the light playing four consecutive league games between February 27 and March 13, but he has once again disappeared into the shadow of the substitution. Guevara has clearly been left behind. 47 minutes in the last two and a half months illustrate his current ostracism in midfield.