Why Don't Real Madrid Produce Any Great Players?

Real Madrid by a number of metrics are the biggest Club in World football players want to play for them hundreds of millions of people support them and they have won more La Liga titles UEFA Champions Leagues and FIFA Club World Cups than any other team they're also the most valuable football team in the world according to Forbes worth in excess of $6 billion and they have topped the Delight football money league as the team with the highest revenue in World football more times than anyone on us it is hardly surprising therefore that Real Madrid have one of the most prolific Academy systems on the planet laaba literally the factory churns out more Talent than any other Youth System in Europe or at least that's what the data suggests there are more former Real Madrid Academy players playing in La Liga and throughout Europe's top five leagues than there are players from any other Academy in the world in the last 10 years alone the sale of Academy graduates has been worth almost 400 million EUR to Real Madrid the second highest figure of any club and constitutes a key part of their financial operation Real Madrid's La fabria youth ranks it would be easy to conclude then is working exactly as intended there is just one point of contention why doesn't it produce any truly great players there are only four lafab Academy graduates in the current Real Madrid first team and only one of them Danny carbajal could you even entertain the possibility of describing as a truly great player at least in the context of Real Madrid and of Europe's Elite the last Bonafide Undisputed worldclass player to come through laaba and break into the first team was eeka Casas and that wasn't even this Millennium Casas made his R first team debut actually on this very day in 1999 exactly 24 years years ago since then Real Madrid's Arch Rivals Barcelona have witnessed the likes of Andre Zesta Sergio bcet Leonel Messi Victor Valdez Pedro Gaby and most recently of all 16-year-old Wonder kid lamin yal For Whom the sky it would seem really is the limit step up from lamazia into their first team around the same time as Casas Barcelona also had the likes of Javi and puol break into their first team me mares fabrigas and Gerard PK departed before making their Barcelona debuts but soon returned to play a starring role it is a curious phenomenon at one of the world's biggest clubs with one of the best funded based in a hot bed of young talent that is Madrid so just what on Earth is going on well funnily enough that's what this video is all about so sit back relax and join me on a journey to the Spanish capital in an effort to figure figure out why exactly Real Madrid don't produce worldclass players Real Madrid's training ground known as Real Madrid City or sead Real Madrid in Spanish is located in the valde bbass Urban Development on the outskirts of Madrid when it opened its doors in 2005 it was the largest sporting facility on the planet and Real Madrid claimed that it's still is almost 20 years on a sprawling complex consisting of 11 training pies the Alfredo de Stephano Stadium which is home to Real Madrid Castilla and Real Madrid's women's team basketball courts fide pictures media Suites Real Madrid's corporate headquarters Turkish baths a SAA a cinema a gym a games room three car Parks a train station 57 individual bedrooms a restaurant swimming pools and an enormous building which winds through the middle of it all containing individual dressing rooms for more than 12 different teams surrounded by arid grassland to all sides in the summer there is a constant hum of construction work in the background interrupted only by the bellowing sound of jet engines though Real Madrid moved to Valas in 2005 it is a site which is very much still under construction described by developers as much more City Real Madrid occupy less than a quarter of the site as a whole where businesses hot hotels and thousands of homes and apartments some of them priced at in excess of €2 million e and fit even for a real Madrid first team player contined to be built to the north and east of Real Madrid's enormous training complex every few minutes planes fly overhead the so-called Real Madrid city is located less than 2 miles from Madrid baras Airport which is the busiest airport in Spain and the fifth busiest in Europe when the site opened Florentino is said to have declared quote if Real Madrid is universal this will be its capital A City open to anyone a football dream the Real Madrid City end quote just to be clear though it is semi gated and you will need permission to be let into any of the main buildings recently there have been talks to rename the entire complex the Florentino Perez sports city which would make Perez a bit like one of those tinpot dictators who named the Asian Capital after themselves as per his own analogy nonetheless it is hugely impressive and it does feel like a city unto itself albe it's a rather lonely City right now until more developments have been erected the decision to move to valde Bas was once a controversial one Real Madrid's former training ground and Academy Center CAD deportiva or sports city had been their spiritual home since 1963 located on the outskirts of Madrid when it first opened under President Santiago bernabo much like the club's new premises in valde Bas as Spain's capital city grew sports city was rapidly swallowed up by Madrid's new Financial District thus massively increasing the value of the land in which it was based during the 1990s confronted with massive debts the possibility of selling the land and moving somewhere cheaper became a contentious talking point and and after he was elected president upon a promise to sign Lis Figo Florentino Perez put the controversial plans into action Madrid's Parliament rezoned the area which was snapped up by four large corporations who built four skyscrapers on the land and Real Madrid received € 418 million EUR in return it costs less than a quarter of that A1 million EUR to build sead Real Madrid about 5 m away in valde bass which is 10 times larger than the Madrid's former headquarters the main building at Real Madrid city which winds its way through the complex is ordered by age group the first door that you see when you enter is the dressing room for the club's youngest age group the under fives and so it progresses from there the layout as well as being practical is supposed to be metaphorical the first door is the first step to pulling on the famous white shirt of Real Madrid and stepping out in front of 880,000 fans at the Santiago bernero things start to get serious when you step up from the infantil A and B Teams to the cadet A and B Teams at around the age of 13 which is reflected at Real Madrid city as the decor changes from yellow to Blue from the younger to older age groups from Cadet A and B the next step is Real Madrid juvenile a group of three teams juvenile a b and c covering ages 15 to 19 just one step below Real Madrid Castilla World Cup winning former Real Madrid fullback Alvaro arala captains The A Team meanwhile Castilla have been coached by Real Madrid Legend Raul since 2019 Real Madrid's all-time record appearance holder and highest scorer until Christiano Ronaldo and Karen Benzema came along row scored 16 goals in only nine games for Real Madrid C team during the mid 1990s but he only had time to make one appearance fora who he now manages before being drafted straight into the first team rul is probably the second most recent world class player after Casas to have stepped up from laaba to the Real Madrid first team without a lone move or being sold and bought back at a later dat first he knows better than anyone just how difficult it is for Academy players to get first team opportunities at Real Madrid following 16 years in the club's first team himself during which time only a handful of players followed in his footsteps and having been part part of Madrid's youth team setup for The Last 5 Years even rul only ended up becoming a Real Madrid player and a successful youth graduate by a bizarre twist of fate though he was born and raised in the Spanish capital r was actually playing an Atletico Madrid's U team at the age of 15 when Atletico in their Eternal wisdom decided to shut down their Academy as a cost cutting measure two years later R became Real Madrid's youngest player of all time and he went on to score 323 goals in 741 games for the club still at least Athletico saved a few quit the reality however is that since moving to their new home in 2005 only a handful of players have navigated every Corridor and age group at Real Madrid City all the way up to the first team and none have found anything like the kind of stardom R enjoyed when they got there when you look at the way in which Real Madrid functions in terms of the monster that the club is and the Machinery of it as an operation that is partly through the nature of the club and partly through design Real Madrid is a football club with expectations like no other in the world of course there are lots of enormous football clubs where fans demand a lot of their players whether that be Manchester United Bayern Munich or Juventus but none are as expectant to supporters at the Santiago bernabo it is hard to believe that at any other club Cristiano Ronaldo during his penultimate season having average better than a goaler game and on route to a third Champions League Crown in only four seasons would be booed by his own supporters following a couple of wayward shots in the 2016 17 season Ronaldo responded to being booed by his own fans by scoring a hat-trick against Bayern Munich in the Champions League and in his postmatch press conference he told reporters quote I'm not asking them to name streets after me the the only thing that I ask is that they don't boo me here I want them to stop booing me because I always give my best and even when I don't score I tried to help Real Madrid end quote his manager Zinedine zadan well acquainted with the lofty expectations at Los Blancos adopted a more conciliatory tone stating quote perhaps the fans won't boom anymore but this is the burn of Bao and it can happen from time to time and he knows that end quote Z knew better than to think that he could change the culture of Real Madrid 16 years after joining the club for a world record breaking fee from Juventus zeran himself was whistled and Jered by RealD fans on occasion as were fellow Club Legends ailano butano eaas Ronaldo Nazario and rul on various different instances Gareth Bale played over 250 games for Real Madrid winning 15 trophies including five UFA Champions League titles and played a pivotal role in several finals but that still didn't stop him from becoming subject to a barrage of abuse and a Relentless campaign of hate throughout much of his time at the club Bale wasn't just booed routinely by Real Madrid fans some went as far as to a cost and Shout abuse at him at the club's training ground and even to attack his car this is not often times at least the easiest environment for young players to be thrown into even those who have grown up around the club typically it takes time for young players to adjust to the Step Up in class from youth team war in the case of Castilla third SI football to playing and competing at the highest level but you don't get time at Real Madrid it is sink or swim it's often noted at Barcelona and drummed into people that the club's most successful eras have been built around a talented core of lamazia graduates who are grounded in the Barcelona philosophy there is obviously still a big step up in quality to the first team but the expectations of them in terms of what to do and how to play the game remain virtually unchanged there is a sense of familiarity therefore when a young player at Barca is thrown in at the deep end because the first team plays with the same style Rhythm and typically formation as the youth teams because of that understanding of Barcelona's history and the attachment to lamazia as an institution fans tend to be much more lenient with lamazia GR ues and forgiving of any teething problems that they might have in the first team Sergio Roberto for instance particularly during his early years could get away with a lot more than a 100 million euro plus signing like anwan Griezmann or Philip coutinho in fact not only is there a greater appreciation of the club's homegrown players there is an expectation and demand on managers to give those players first team opportunities Barcelona would never appoint Jose Mourinho or Carlo anchel unless they made sufficient concessions to give lamazia graduates opportunities the same ethos just doesn't exist at Real Madrid by contrast managers know that a few bad results at the bernabo typically means that their head will be on the Block and they are therefore extremely risk averse when it comes to playing young players homegrown or otherwise since Carlo ancelotti's return to the Santiago bernabo over two years ago now only five Academy gradu s have made their La Liga debuts for Real Madrid and they have played a combined total of 13 league games between them that's an average of barely two and a half games each consisting primarily of late substitute appearances and two of them have already been sold over the exact same period 15 lamazia graduates have made their La Liga debuts for Barcelona between them they have made a combine total of 186 League appearan Gaby Alejandro Bal and lamin yamal are all now key members of the Barcelona first team and false Spanish Internationals the gulf between the two La Liga Giants in this regard could hardly be more Stark unlike Barcelona Real Madrid don't have a decades long grounding and distinct idea of how the game should be played their only philosophy is winning and whichever play is the head coach at any one time Fields will best help him achieve that goal and remain the job in the short term are the ones who will play from Mourinho and Bitz to anchel and zadan Real Madrid routinely chop and change their style making it impossible for laaba to implement anything like a consistent uniform approach for every age group that would last more than a few years in fact Real Madrid's approach is almost diametrically opposed to the ideals of lamazia whereas Barcelona's youth ranks are finally tuned to churn out very barasa specific players who can step into the first team where the most talented among them often flourish laaba aims to create what it calls Global players that is to say players who could play in any system for any club in the world the idea of the global player suits Real Madrid not just because they have no fixed style and therefore no specific ideology that they wish to implant upon their young players to prepare them for first team football but primarily because they are typically not preparing players for first team football at Real Madrid at all which brings us to the elements of design that I mentioned earlier on Real Madrid's Academy might not produce many Real Madrid players and virtually no world class players anymore but it produces an awful lot of players for other clubs the reality of laaba is that it is an academy system which primarily prepares players not to play For Real Madrid but against them the more former laaba players in La Liga and throughout Europe's top five leagues than there are players from arguably much more esteemed acmy at Ajax Manchester United or Barcelona over the past 10 years Real Madrid's Academy players have fetched the club almost 400 million e in sales which isn't bad going for an Academy which costs around €25 million a year to run it makes laaba the second most lucrative Academy in World football during that time Time ahead of Ajax and Chelsea's youth ranks and trailing only Benfica the likes of Marcus ente Serio regalon Hess Rodriguez ashra aimi and Alvaro Morata have raised a small fortune for Los Blancos constituting a key part of the club's broader business model not unlike at Chelsea in recent years for the most part Real Madrid is happy for laaba to function as a gold mine for the club on the outskirts of Madrid Prin ring money which can then be used to fund the acquisition of worldclass youngsters and ready-made first team players like Jude Bellingham Arelli and Chui and Eduardo kavinga where there is a lot less risk involved Real Madrid are largely unmoved unlike a lot of clubs by the sentimentality of locally born and bred players who have been nurtured by the club for years stepping out onto the Hallow Turf it is a results business first and foremost of the Santiago babo and if they have the choice of an unproven 19-year-old from laf fabria or a proven 21-year-old from Monaco that is not a hard decision as far as Real Madrid is concerned in many ways labria is the perfect nickname for Real Madrid's Academy system laaba literally means the factory in English and Real Madrid's Academy is just that a factory churning out products to sell on for a profit if once in a gener generation a rul or eek CS crops up who is good enough to step straight into the first team and perform at the age of 17 or 18 then fantastic if like nacho or Lucas Vasquez they are capable enough and content to act as Squad players or rotation options that is also convenient but if you're not good enough at 19 or 20 to be any use to Real Madrid in the here and now then well bye in the words of Michael Corone it's not personal something it's strictly business in the last couple of years there has been another more specific problem when it comes to the development of Youth team players at Real Madrid in 2014 Real Madrid Casa were relegated from the Segunda Division and ever since they have been competing in the third tier of Spanish football the gulf between La Liga and more specifically Playing For Real Madrid in La Liga and the third of Spanish football you won't be surprised to discover is even greater than the gulf between Madrid and the second division over the last couple of years therefore Real Madrid have made a real push for promotion but as of yet too little Avail last season RS side finish third in group one of the premiera Federation before drawing four all with El Den over two legs in the promotion playoff final with nothing to separate the two teams it was El Den who promoted ahead of Castilla by virtue of having finished higher during the regular season the push for promotion has seen Raul turn increasingly towards more experienced Castilla players through fears of slip ups and Desperation to get the job done it means however that not only are Real Madrid's first team focused primarily on short-term results so too is Castilla which ostensibly exists as a feed a club to serve the first team and develop players from the club's youth ranks there is a risk versus reward in Real Madrid's eyes based upon the better quality and grounding that secondary football would provide but until they actually get there all that's happening is that they are putting further possible youth developments on hold until they can supposedly develop those players at a higher level what's more supposing Castilla do finally win promotion this season and they have one- one lost one and drawn one of their opening three fixtures of the current campaign at the time of this recording who is to say that the focus won't then turn to establishing themselves in the saunda division supposing Casa find themselves towards the foot of the saunda division table a not wholly unlikely Prospect for a newly promoted club that won't have played at that level for at least a decade when there is only one other Reserve team in Spain's second here now surely the Temptation then will be to drop their youngsters avoid risks and halt development yet again it should be noted at this point that Barcelona athletic Barcelona's B Team also compete in the third tier of Spanish football and actually dropped into the fourth tier between 2018 and 2021 but that still didn't stop them from maintaining a pipeline of talent from lamazia to their first team that Real Madrid can only dream of of course there is an element to which and I am sure that plenty of Real Madrid fans would make this point Barcelona are currently more dependent upon laasia graduates than Real Madrid are on LA fabri graduates because Real Madrid's finances are in a much healthier State than Barcelona's that is a perfectly valid point and laaba is one of the reasons why Madrid's finances are still in relatively decent shape but nevertheless I shouldn't imagine that there are too many Los Blancos fans who would turn down the opportunity to add Gaby or lamin yl to their squad Real Madrid contrary to popular opinion haven't historically neglected their youth ranks several Academy players were part of Real Madrid's early dominance of the European Cup including Enrique Matos who played in five European Cup winning squads in the 1966 final that Real Madrid won likewise five of their starting 11 were home grown players compared to just one when they won their most recent Champions League Crown in 2022 it's not true therefore that there has never been close ties between lafab B's output and Real Madrid's first team success just as there has been between lamazia and Barcelona it's just that those links haven't been canonized in the same way they are slightly more historic and they don't hold as much sway or importance in the consciousness of most ramed fans and certainly not in the minds of the club's hierarchy and Florentino Perez's Perez is a man however who suffers from profound fomo that is a fear of missing out for the over 45s there ever since Barcelona beat Real Madrid to the signing of Neymar and he turned out to be just as good as his performances in Brazil suggested Perez has signed virtually every Brazilian who even so much as looks like they might be half decent at football before they're even out of nappies Real Madrid agreed a deal to S Rodrigo for 45 million euros from Santos when he was just 17 years old Hae J Zeus from Flamingo for €30 million EUR the day after he turned 18 venicius Jr also from Flamingo for a fee of 46 million E when he was 16 and soon those three will be joined by endri possibly the most exciting prospect in all of Brazilian football who Madrid agreed a deal to sign for 37 and A5 million EUR from palas last December when he too was just 16 years old that's another reason why young players perhaps find it tricky to break into the Real Madrid first team you know when they keep signing the best teenagers in Brazil for tens of millions of Eur Euros but it's also illustrative of Perez's fomo that extends further to Real Madrid's own Academy graduates whilst the club might be content getting rid of them if they're offered a decent fee and they don't feel as though they are immediately ready for first team football they don't just wave goodbye and forget about them virtually every time that Real Madrid sell a laaba graduate or any young player for that matter they insert a favorable buyback Clause into their contract and then they monitor them religiously for at least the next 5 or 6 years the buyback Clauses not unlike laaba as a whole serve a dual purpose Real Madrid triggered them not only when they think that a former player is now ready to step up and play first team football for them but also when they think that their true value has exceeded the value of their buyback Clause Omar mascarel for example a defensive midfielder who came through the youth ranks at laaba and made over 75 appearances for Castilla was sold to anre Frankfurt for €1 million in 2016 Madrid activated mascarell 4 million euro buyback clause in 2018 and on the very same day that they officially resigned him they sold him again to shalka for 10 million EUR Madrid never wanted mascarel back in their first team of course they just saw a very easy way of making €6 million e in less than 24 hours even Danny carbajal Real Madrid's most impactful and successful Academy graduate of at least the past decade was initially sold to by a leusen before it even played a game for Madrid before his 65 million EUR release Clause was activated after just a single season in the Bundesliga he has since made almost 400 appearances back at the bernabo fellow fullback Fran Garcia who was brought back to the bernabo from viao after his 5 million euro buyback Clause was activated this summer at the age of 24 will be hoping to follow in his footsteps Cara Hal incidentally was responsible for the inauguration of Real Madrid City in 2005 along with Madrid Legend Alfredo Deano when he was just 13 years old at the time Carvajal could look up to the likes of rul Casas guti borha Fernandez Ral Bravo Francisco pavon Alvaro mayor Alvaro alaloa Miguel Palencia Ruben delare Juan Fran and jav Garcia all in the first team squad and see that there was a clear pathway from yellow to Blue at Real Madrid City and eventually opportunities in the first team that is 12 players so basically half of Real Madrid's Squad at the time including three Bonafide Club Legends the last time that a real Madrid icon like rul Casas or GTI stepped up to the first team none of lafab bria's almost 300 hopefuls now had even even been born yet a fresh-faced 13-year-old at Real Madrid now would look up to the first team and see only carbajal nacho Lucas Vasquez and the recently returned Fran Garcia only one of whom nacho wasn't sold and bought back by The Club at the turn of the Millennium Florentino Perez promised to build a team of zidan and pons referring to Club records signing zidine zidan widely regarded as one of the best players in the world at the time and Real Madrid's most promising Academy graduate Francisco pavon who was at that time expected to form the fulcrum of the Real Madrid defense for the next decade and Beyond pavon could never quite live up to being somewhat unfortunately lumped in with Zinedine zidan when he was barely 20 years old by the age of 27 pavon was playing for r faragoza with whom he was relegating in his debut campaign and at 31 he retired Perez is still the commander-in-chief of Real Madrid but there hasn't been talk of zidan and pavans or anything even vaguely resembling it for a very long time laaba is no longer there to cultivate Talent capable of Starting Games For Real Madrid and being mentioned in the same breath as Zinedine zidan but to provide the funds for Real Madrid to go out and buy the likes of Jude Bellingham and venicius Jr it is a methodical assembly line churning out more good players than any other Academy in the world but very few truly great ones that is it for today's video but thank you all very much as ever for watching hit the like button if you enjoyed it let me know your thoughts Down Below in the comments and of course goes without saying make sure that you're subscribed and have notifications turned on for both this Channel hitc 7s and my second Channel Alfie Poots armor both of which should be on your screens now along with a couple of videos that you might enjoy watching after this one you can also find me on either Instagram or Twitter via the username @ h cc7 on both should you wish to do so and all of those links plus a whole lot more are linked down in the video description below

Channel: HITC Sevens

Views: 420,215

Keywords: HITC Sevens, Football, Soccer, Real Madrid, Academy, Youth, Players, Real, Madrid, Great, Footballers, Castilla, La Liga, Champions League, Documentary, Premier League, La Fabrica, Barcelona, La Masia, Why, Don't, Produce, Transfers, Florentino Perez, Carlo Ancelotti

Id: ao5gccLtRL8

Length: 30min 7sec (1807 seconds)

Published: Fri Sep 15 2023