February 5, 2018 is a date that Valdebebas will take to forget. That day a young Canarian, only 15 years old, was landing in Madrid from Tenerife to train with Cadet A of the white team. His name was Pedro González, but then he was already known as Pedri.
That February 5, Monday, a heavy snow covered the fields of the Real Madrid Sports City. That meant that Pedri had to wait until Tuesday to don his Madrid kit for the first time. He exercised that day and did it again two later, on Thursday, because on Wednesday Cadet A had a game. The quarry technicians made a negative report: he had to return to his homeland to continue at Laguna, because they considered that he did not have the level to enter the following year in the Madrid quarry.
This mistake still stings in Valdebebas, because in recent years the greatest importance has been given to attracting the best young talents on the planet (Vinicius, Rodrygo …), but there is also an attempt to get the best Spaniards to enter the Madrid quarry.
Pedri's case is even more painful because at the beginning of the summer of 2019, when he had already been in Las Palmas for a year (the yellows signed him from Laguna in the summer of 2018), the canary was again offered to Real Madrid. However, the reports about him were not favorable, taking into account those two 2018 trainings, and they ruled him again.
Who did not rule him out was Pepe Mel, who decided to raise him directly from the Youth to the first team for 2019-20. That caused Madrid, against the clock, to want to correct their mistake. It was too late. Barcelona had set their eyes on him and decided to invest five million euros last summer, an amount that right now seems like a bargain. The player, hurt with Madrid, did not hesitate. In addition, his idol was always Iniesta and following in the Manchego footsteps meant fulfilling a dream. Something that would never have happened if in that week of February 2018 the reports about that Canarian boy who landed in Valdebebas had been favorable …