Real Madrid's Preseason Under Mourinho: Players to Watch
The gates at Valdebebas swung open this week to a familiar figure and a very different Real Madrid.
José Mourinho is back in white, back in the city he once set on edge, and already back on the grass. Preseason has started with more questions than players, the new coach working with a stripped-down group while World Cup regulars stretch out their holidays and nurse their legs.
Those who did not go to the tournament reported on July 13. The rest will drip-feed into training over the coming weeks. That staggered return hands a rare, precious window to a handful of players whose Madrid futures will be shaped in July, not January or June.
The brief from the board is clear: restore a winning edge after two seasons without a major trophy. For Mourinho, that starts now, with a whistle, a stopwatch, and a squad full of men who know some of them will not survive the cut.
Here are six of them who cannot afford a quiet summer.
Trent Alexander-Arnold: Under the microscope
Trent Alexander-Arnold should have been in America, Asia or wherever England’s World Cup dream ended. Instead, he was among the first through the doors at Valdebebas.
Thomas Tuchel’s decision to leave him out of England’s squad was one of the tournament’s big selection flashpoints. It did, however, make Madrid’s life easier. While others rest, the former Liverpool right back is running shuttles and pressing his case.
His first season in Spain was fine. Nothing more. The passing range travelled well, the set pieces too, but the same old doubts cling to him. Switches off at the back post. Gets caught high. Leaves space behind him that better sides feast on.
That was under a coach more forgiving of creative defenders. Now he has Mourinho, a manager who has never hidden his intolerance for full backs who freelance without the ball. To complicate things, Denzel Dumfries has arrived to contest that flank, a more orthodox Mourinho profile: powerful, direct, defensively obedient.
Alexander-Arnold is not fighting for minutes. He is fighting for trust. Under this manager, that is a much harder battle.
Dean Huijsen: Talent on trial
Dean Huijsen’s summer could have looked very different. If Luis de la Fuente had made a different call, the young defender might still be in a World Cup bubble, preparing for a final with Spain. Instead, he watched Atlético Madrid’s Marc Pubill take the spot many expected him to fill.
That sting now has to fuel him.
Huijsen’s 2025–26 season mirrored Madrid’s: flashes of promise, but too many shaky moments when the pressure rose. The tools are obvious. He is tall, composed, comfortable stepping out with the ball. The question is whether those attributes can be trusted in a team trying to win everything, every year.
Mourinho’s answer, historically, has been simple: experience over potential, especially in central defence. The club has already moved in that direction, bringing in Ibrahima Konaté, Marc Cucurella and Dumfries as part of a back-line reset, with at least one more signing expected.
Yet circumstances hand Huijsen a chance. Konaté is still tied up on World Cup duty, Éder Militão remains injured, and preseason friendlies need centre backs. For the first few games, the stage is his.
If he convinces Mourinho now, he stays in the conversation. If not, he risks becoming collateral in a defensive rebuild.
Eduardo Camavinga: At a crossroads
Eduardo Camavinga was not supposed to be here either. The Frenchman had grown used to international gatherings, but this time he watched the World Cup from afar and reported early to Valdebebas.
His Madrid career has stalled. Once viewed as a cornerstone of the club’s next great midfield, he has slipped backwards over the last couple of seasons. The energy is still there, the bite too, yet the influence has faded. With that dip came transfer noise, with several Premier League clubs linked.
So far, though, there has been more talk than concrete offers.
Camavinga is understood to want to stay and fight for his place. The problem is simple: where does Mourinho see him? As a disciplined part of a double pivot? As a utility option, shunted between roles? Or as a saleable asset in a squad that suddenly looks crowded in the middle of the pitch?
With senior midfielders yet to return from international duty, the Frenchman has an early window to remind everyone what he can do when he plays with freedom and confidence. If he fails to grab it, he may find that decisions about his future are made for him, not by him.
Brahim Díaz: From bit-part to leading role?
For Morocco, Brahim Díaz is a star. He carried a heavy creative load in their run to the World Cup quarterfinals, delivering the kind of performances that turn heads and shift reputations.
Back at Madrid, he is still the supporting act.
At 26, Díaz is no longer a prospect. He is entering his prime years, and this preseason arrives with a clear opening. Rodrygo Goes is still recovering from an ACL injury, leaving a vacancy on the right in Mourinho’s preferred 4-2-3-1.
That role is made for a player who can combine work rate with invention, track back without complaint, and still produce decisive moments in the final third. Díaz has shown he can do it in bursts. What he has never truly been given at Madrid is the responsibility of being first choice.
He will not join up immediately, his World Cup ending only on July 9. When he does walk into Mourinho’s orbit, he will do so with fresh tournament credit and the knowledge that the manager likes wide players who commit to both sides of the game.
If he nails this preseason, he stops being an option and becomes the option on that flank.
Arda Güler: Promise under scrutiny
Arda Güler’s World Cup ended quickly. Türkiye’s group-stage exit means the 21-year-old is expected back in Madrid sooner than many of his peers.
He returns with his status clear at national-team level: indispensable, a creative hub, the man they look to when the game needs unlocking. At club level, the picture is far murkier.
Madrid know they have a special talent on their hands. Mourinho knows it too, but his teams are built on structure before sparkle. That raises a blunt tactical question: where does Güler fit?
The No.10 role seems taken. Jude Bellingham has made it his own and shows no sign of letting go. Dropping Güler into a midfield double pivot would demand a level of physicality and positional discipline he has yet to consistently show. Using him wide asks him to run, press and cover in ways that could blunt his strengths.
The looming arrival of Bernardo Silva, a model Mourinho player in terms of work rate and reliability, only complicates the equation.
One report from SPORT suggested Mourinho called Güler after Türkiye’s elimination to reassure him of his importance. That phone call matters. But words are one thing. Preseason selections, minutes and roles are another.
Güler now has to prove he can be trusted not just as a luxury, but as a functioning piece in a demanding system.
Endrick: Hype versus reality
Few players in this squad split opinion like Endrick.
To some, he is a generational forward in the making. To others, he is a social-media phenomenon still living off clips and potential. The truth, as always, sits somewhere between the noise and the numbers.
What cannot be denied is his impact at Lyon. Sixteen goal involvements in 24 appearances in half a season is serious output for any player, let alone a teenager. It earned him a place in Brazil’s World Cup squad and fed the sense that Madrid had moved early for a future star.
Yet when he first arrived in Spain, Carlo Ancelotti barely used him. Every unused substitute appearance became a talking point, a source of frustration in Brazil and a quiet satisfaction for those who doubted the hype.
Now the slate is clean. At 19, Endrick is not expected to leave on loan again, according to reports, but that does not automatically translate into minutes. He has to show Mourinho he offers something different, something worth building around or at least worth rotating in regularly.
Preseason friendlies will not define his career. They will, however, shape his starting position in the race for the manager’s approval. If he can translate that Lyon form into Madrid colours, the conversation around him changes from “Is he ready?” to “How do you leave him out?”
The World Cup will dominate the headlines a little longer, but the real work at Real Madrid has already started. Mourinho is on the grass, the stopwatch is running, and for Alexander-Arnold, Huijsen, Camavinga, Díaz, Güler and Endrick, every sprint, every drill, every touch now carries weight.
Some will emerge from this summer as pillars of the new project. Others may find the door closing behind them.
Under Mourinho, there is rarely much middle ground.
