From glamor to underground

EI coronavirus has made the summer of Real Madrid unrecognizable. Especially his preseason, which has gone from having the traditional glamorous touch of world tour summer (the white team stepped on China, Australia, Canada and the United States in the last five years) to have to prepare under cover in Valdebebas. A stage to prepare for the start of the 2020-21 campaign that has its first test this Wednesday against Rayo Vallecano … and it will not even be seen on television.

The pandemic has generated a huge contrast with the usual preparation that Zidane and his physical right hand, Grégory Dupont, designs. As an example, in their three previous preseason, the first white friendly was in the US and against PSG (1-3, in 2016), Manchester United (1-1, 2017) and last year against which in the end it would be the European champion, Bayern (1-3). All in NFL stadiums and surrounded by the paraphernalia and glamor that the International Champions Cup tries to put together every summer to become the Champions of the summer, although they are parties without official character. Zidane has been able to gauge in recent years his previous projects against Mourinho's United, Guardiola's City, the Miami Clásico in 2017 and even the painful 3-7 in New Jersey last summer in the derby against Atlético.

In contrast, tomorrow's game against Rayo in Valdebebas does not even have the character of a friendly. Madrid considers it “training”. Therefore, as this newspaper learned, it will not be broadcast on television, not even by RealMadridTV, the official channel of the white club. It is also not expected, although it is not yet confirmed, that the other preparation duel of Zizou and his pupils can be broadcast on Tuesday 15 against Getafe again in the Madrid sports city. A stage almost clandestine …

Also much more austere. Madrid does not leave the Valdebebas residence when in other years it was common to see them mingle with movie and sports stars during their stays at the Beverly Hills Hotel in Los Angeles. The disorder for the entity of Chamartín is not only for the purposes of sports preparation, but also for world brand image, one of the spurs to plan summer tours. A economic setback In all rules.

Losses. Because to the nearly 180 million euros that Madrid expects to lose due to the coronavirus (especially due to the decrease in box office income, season tickets …) it must be added that this year the check for the International Champions Cup will not arrive The Madrid was going to enter near 17 million euros this summer for his friendlies in the United States. Madrid is in the group of clubs with the most cache (along with Barcelona and Bayern) with close to € 4M per bolus in this tournament, but that amount was going to be multiplied with the Classic that was to be played against Barcelona in Las Vegas (It was also negotiated with Los Angeles) last August, the second confrontation between Madridistas and Catalans in the country of the stars and stripes.

An economic hole for Madrid, which is precisely dedicating its strategy to parking the signings (the only new faces have been Odegaard and the return of Odriozola) and focus your efforts on Operation Exit to release the salary mass by removing the salaries of players that Zidane does not have, such as James, Bale and Mariano.

An atypical preparation …

The Marseillais will have to shoot those who are in his prayers in an express way. In previous summers he took advantage of the first official titles (the Spanish and European Super Cups) as a touchstone and last year, without any in dispute for Madrid, arranged seven high octane friendlies (Bayern, Arsenal, Atlético, Tottenham, Fenerbahçe, Haaland's Red Bull Salzburg and Roma) spread over 22 days. Now Zizou will only have two rehearsals and having suffered the loss of ten internationals During last week.

The icing on this atypical preseason will be the training duel against Getafe on the 15th. Madridistas and azulones will still be filing the last details when the rest of the League (except for them, Barça, Atlético and Sevilla) will have already played the first working day. If Madrid was able to get hold of the Coronavirus League, as Ramos baptized it, now it's up to Zidane to squeeze out a preseason marked by the pandemic.