Real Madrid's Centre-Back Crisis Ahead of La Liga Opener
Real Madrid’s season has not even started and already the alarms are sounding at the back.
Jose Mourinho will walk into the opening La Liga fixture against Espanyol with just three fit senior centre-backs: Antonio Rudiger, Dean Huijsen and new signing Ibrahima Konate. For a club that expects to fight on every front, that is a thin line of protection.
Centre-back crisis before a ball is kicked
AS report that Eder Militao is still working his way back from the long-term problems that wrecked his previous campaign. Raul Asencio, who was expected to offer depth, has been ruled out for around six weeks after a thigh injury picked up in pre-season.
On paper, Mourinho has five recognised centre-backs. In reality, two of them are unavailable for the first league game, leaving him with no real margin for error as the season begins.
The spotlight now falls on Konate. The summer arrival has a fortnight and a friendly against Schalke to sharpen his fitness before the serious business starts. Madrid did not sign him to ease in gently, but the circumstances mean his adaptation period might be brutally short.
Huijsen is the other pillar Mourinho will lean on. A minor muscle issue kept him out of the team’s first official match, yet last season he was the most-used centre-back in the squad. That workload looks set to continue. From day one, he may again be asked to anchor a defence that has little cover behind it.
Rudiger completes the trio. The German endured knee problems last season but has stepped back into action, playing 45 minutes against Ferencváros and then starting against Deportivo. Madrid will need his experience and edge, especially while Militao and Asencio watch from the stands.
With only three senior centre-backs available, rotation in the early weeks of La Liga will be a luxury Mourinho simply does not have. Any suspension or fresh injury could push the situation from uncomfortable to dangerous.
Doors open for the kids
The shortage at the back has created opportunity. Joan Martinez and Mario Rivas have used pre-season to force their way into Mourinho’s thoughts.
Both started in the club’s first two friendlies, showing enough personality and composure to be considered genuine options, not just warm bodies to fill training drills. With the squad stretched, one of them may end up as the de facto fourth centre-back in the early stages of the campaign.
Their rise comes against the backdrop of a summer of exits from La Fabrica. Real Madrid’s academy has been stripped at pace, with a long list of youngsters heading elsewhere and the flow showing no sign of slowing.
The next big move is expected to be Jacobo Ortega’s transfer to Strasbourg. If completed, it would make him the most expensive sale of a Real Madrid youth player yet to debut for the first team. And he will not be the last.
Academy cash machine passes €200 million
AS also report that Manuel Angel and David Jimenez are set to follow. Both have reached the end of their cycle with Castilla and are waiting for the right offers to crystallise.
Interest is not the problem. Clubs from La Liga, the Segunda Division and beyond have circled, but nothing has yet been finalised. In the meantime, Real Madrid have pulled them out of Castilla’s pre-season friendlies and matchday squads, a clear strategy to avoid any injury that might derail impending sales.
Once Ortega’s deal and the other outgoing transfers are added up, the academy is expected to generate more than €200 million in revenue this summer alone. Internally, the club view it as a historic window.
This is not a fire sale of fringe players with no pedigree. Manuel Angel and Jimenez are products of a golden generation.
Two standouts on the way out
Both were central pieces in Alvaro Arbeloa’s treble-winning academy side, a group that also included Nico Paz and Gonzalo Garcia.
Manuel Angel, 22, has long been one of the jewels of Valdebebas. A two-footed, intelligent midfielder who joined the academy in 2014, he even broke into the first team at the end of last season, making seven appearances. The next step is clear: he needs a club that can offer him regular minutes at senior level.
David Jimenez is cut from a different cloth but carries similar promise. An attacking full-back with one of the most highly rated right feet in the academy, he has drawn comparisons to Dani Carvajal for his leadership and his aggressive, front-foot style. He too featured for the first team last season, impressing under both Xabi Alonso and Arbeloa.
Now both wait. So do Madrid. So do their agents.
The club are cashing in on an academy that has never been more valuable, yet at the same time Mourinho faces the new season with a patched-up defence and kids on standby. The question is obvious: how long can a squad built to sell its future and strain its present keep winning at the very top?
