Raúl is the heir

EI Real Madrid Not only think long term with the squad (Odegaard, Vinicius, Rodrygo, Reinier, Kubo …), so does with the bench. The roadmap for the role of future heir of Zidane passes through the figure of Raúl and his first success as a coach. The brilliant conquest of the UEFA Youth League with the Whites last Tuesday confirms the entity's commitment. He also achieved it in front of Florentino Pérez, who traveled to Nyon to support Seven and his boys …

The Madrid he's more than happy with Zizou (“It's a godsend,” Florentino proclaimed after the Super Cup in Jeddah) but the Marseillais left a huge gap after his first outing that neither Lopetegui nor Solari managed to cover. Raúl could, in the eyes of Madrid, do it. Why replicates, almost point by point, all the ingredients that facilitated the initial success of the coach Zidane. Madrid icon as a footballer and he is being able do your internship as a novice technician in training categories and in Factory, the perfect method to get to know the youth players with the greatest projection for the first team without intermediaries. Zidane took over the reins of the first team on January 4, 2016 without any trophies or promotions on his then thin coaching resume. Raúl is now the technical champion of Europe in the U-19 category.

When Dani Poyatos informed the club that he was leaving the Juvenil A bench in July, whom he had led to the Youth League round of 16 before the break, to go to Panathinaikos, the first candidate as a provisional substitute was Raúl. He Seven He had not gone through the prestigious Juvenil A (he jumped from Juvenil B to Castilla) and the Youth League had always resisted it to Madrid. Raúl agreed to go down temporarily and called a video call for all Youth in which He called them to a regular preseason (34 days) to go all out for the European title. A preparation that served the Youth to be champion after winning four games in nine days. He made the most of a generation that excites the Chamartín entity.

Raúl lives, rejoices and suffers almost as if he were still on the other side of the lime line, being a footballer. Rigorous when your boys are wrong (He did not like the crossing of Jordi cables that cost him the red one against Juve in the second round) but quick to give his support in bad times, like his consolation to Pablo Rodríguez when he was injured by scoring 0-1 in the end. “It transmits to us the winning DNA of Madrid,” say its Youth. A gene with whom he manages the dressing room and that the club also sees in Zidane. The present and the future.