A Madrid without Spaniards

More than one was hit by Luis Enrique's lineup against Georgia last week. Not a Real Madrid footballer in the eleven of the National Team five and a half years after the last time something like this happened. It was not a coincidence. If the past decade was that of the Spanishization of Real Madrid in this the club is on the way to circulate precisely in the opposite direction. Right now it has open fronts with three footballers born in our country (captain Sergio Ramos, Lucas Vázquez and Isco, all international by the way) and another, Mariano, has been putting on the market for almost two years. Ramos' situation has become even more complicated, by breaking precisely with the National Team and in a controversial way. If they all leave, Madrid would be left with just four players born in Spain: Carvajal, Asensio, Nacho and Odriozola. A situation that would make it extremely difficult for the entity to cover the quota of eight 'national' players …

It is a sangria of Spanish talents that has been accentuating. Since the signing of Brahim from Malaga in January 2019, the club has signed eight more players and all were foreigners. Hazard, Jovic, Mendy, Militao, Rodrygo, Reinier, Kubo and Areola for a total value of 330 million euros. Future acquired outside. Meanwhile, the club continues to be involved in that thorny renewal of Ramos and Lucas, a youth squad, multipurpose and with a long history in the first team, is almost given up for lost and points to Bayern and also free.

The paradox is that Madrid has three players of the highest level who could recover the payroll of Spaniards loaned out. Ceballos at Arsenal, Brahim at Milan and Borja Mayoral, capocannoniero in Rome, they cry out for football to have a chance to come back. Mayoral would be the only one for which there could be obstacles, because his assignment in the Italian capital is for two seasons and the first of them is just about to end. Two more that are recoverable via repurchase, such as Reguilón (the repechage option is signed at € 40M) and Achraf (In his case, he retains the right of first refusal before any offer that Inter receives).

The quota for the Champions, threatened

Then there is, furthermore, the matter of not even covering the minimum required by UEFA. By 'national' footballers, UEFA understands those formed by Real Madrid itself or another belonging to the Spanish Federation who will play uninterruptedly in their discipline for three years between the ages of 15 and 21. In this context, Madrid would also have Since the campaign that comes to three players under that umbrella, such as Varane (French), Valverde (Uruguayan) and Vinicius (Brazilian) Because even though they were born outside our borders, they all started at the Madrid club on their 18th birthday season. Odegaard could not qualify because he interrupted the process with his assignments in Holland.

It is a measure that UEFA implemented years ago to protect and promote the presence of homegrown players and footballers born in the same country of the teams that participate in European competitions. It is not mandatory to cover the eight chips, but if it is not done, for each missing 'national' footballer, UEFA subtracts one chip from the total of 25 that can be presented in List A for the Champions from this season. If Madrid chooses to keep only seven players who can cover this quota, UEFA would penalize them by allowing only 24 players to register. If the white staff is 25 members at the beginning of the next campaign, someone would have to be left out …

It is a very unlikely scenario because Madrid could weather it by making a first-team card to a Castillian, but it would denote in any case a problem that had not existed for a long time. And he could not make up a hypothetical but feasible scenario in Madrid, he would only have 20 percent of the team born in Spain (five players out of twenty-five). It seems a trend that does not stop and more when The big names that make the white radar sound strong, from Mbappé to Haaland via Alaba and Camavinga, do not have a Spanish DNI either.