The La Roja Factory

The Madrid quarry does not stop producing talent. For clubs around the world (it nurtures 63 players in the first division of the 31 main European countries, as published this week by CIES) and also for the Spanish National Team. Marcos Llorente became on Wednesday the friendly against the Netherlands in the last La Fábrica product to debut with The Red. And he succeeded, like the vast majority of players who have passed through Castilla since the founding of the subsidiary, playing for a club other than Madrid. The now Atlético player is the fourth footballer trained in the white quarry to which Luis Enrique gives the alternative. Mario Hermoso had the opportunity to debut in November 2018 and, more recently, last September, Óscar Rodríguez and Reguilón did.

Players who extend an extensive list of Madrid youth squad players who have nurtured the calls and lineups of successive coaches. In total, there have been 82 throughout history. If we take as a reference the creation of Castilla almost half a century ago, in 1972, there are 57 players who have passed through the white team and later they have ended up wearing the National Team shirt at some point. Just two thirds of them (38) made their international debut when they were away from Madrid.

In the early years In Castilla's career, football lived in a very different environment, in which the opening of borders was very timid and the movement of footballers between clubs did not reach the level it is now. Thus, in that first period, the ex-Castillistas who came to the National Team from the first white team were the majority. Of the first 11 who reached international status (Camacho was the pioneer in reaching the National Team after passing through Castilla), only Lanchas (Espanyol) was in a team other than Real Madrid when he made his testimonial debut (he only played that game) with La Roja.

Since the late 80s the trend was overwhelmingly reversed and the majority of ex-Castilla players have made their international debut after having gone to other clubs to find their lives. Among them, Pardeza, the first member of La Quinta del Buitre to pack his bags and the only one to earn his international status away from Madrid (in Zaragoza). In the 90s, only 3 of the 11 white youth players who made it to the National Team did so from Madrid: Alfonso, Guti and Raúl.

The trend has continued and has even worsened well into the 2000s. In the last 20 years, 33 former Castilla players have made their debut with the National Team. Of them, only 6 were in Madrid: Casillas, Raúl Bravo, Nacho (between these two, 11 years passed without any player from Madrid's first team making his debut with the National Team), Carvajal, Lucas Vázquez and Reguilón. The latter is a strange case, since he made his debut between the end of his loan at Sevilla and his transfer to Tottenham.

Not counting Regi, Since Lucas Vázquez, in the last four and a half years there have been six former castillista players who have debuted with the National Team, already disengaged in all or part of the white club: Parejo, Marcos Alonso, Hermoso (although Madrid still had 50% of their rights when they debuted), Sarabia and the aforementioned Óscar Rodríguez and Llorente.

Several returned to Real Madrid after their international debut

Among the 38 players who after passing through Castilla were internationals with Spain, some cases, such as those mentioned by Hermoso and Reguilón, present some nuances and others had the opportunity to return to Madrid as internationals.

Canizares (Celtic) and Soldier (Osasuna) were on loan when they received the call from Clemente and Aragonés, respectively. Like Diego Llorente (Lightning), but in his case he didn't play for Madrid afterwards. They also returned with the international vitola Of the network Y Morata, when Madrid exercised the buyback options when they were transferred to Getafe and Juventus. And there are the cases of Arbeloa (from the list, the one who played the most with Spain: 56 games), Diego Lopez Y Kiko Casilla, who were disconnected from Madrid when they debuted with La Roja, but then returned.