The Underrated Academy Of Real Madrid

At the end of the January transfer window, out of the 20 teams in the Primera Division, only four -  Real Sociedad, Athletic Bilbao, Barcelona and Zaragoza – did not contain one player in their squad who had graduated from Real Madrid’s cantera. It’s quite an astonishing accomplishment to see 16 teams containing at least one player instilled with Los Blancos philosophy, and apart from Zaragoza, the other three have known beliefs of developing their own talent. Yet talk across Europe the talk is that Barcelona’s La Masia is the greatest academy, but with these numbers of players in Spain alone, can Real have an argument that there’s is just as good?

Real Madrid have a history of great players from Ferenc Puskas to Hugo Sanchez, yet some of the most important have been graduates from their academy such as the famous La Quinta del Buitre, translated as “The Vultures Squad”, who were five homegrown players that were key to Madrid’s dominance in the 1980’s; which won five La Liga’s, two UEFA Cup’s and a Copa Del Rey in that decade.

Butragueno Is One Of The Greatest To Emerge From The Academy

Forget Özil And Di Maria, Canales Could Be The Best Buy

Real Madrid president Florentino Perez had a bright idea when he was elected in 2000. He could build the best squad in the world if they followed some simple procedures. In principal the theory sounded perfect. You would spend enormous sums of money on the best footballers such as Ronaldo (€39 million), Zinedine Zidane (€75 million), David Beckham (€35 million) or Luis Figo (€45 million).

The big names would equal revenue, so television deals and merchandise would enhance because these household names would be attractive, especially in the untapped markets of American and Asia, and eventually that large transfer fee would be recouped. Finally players from the Castilla would be promoted, such as Alvaro Mejia and Francisco Pavon, meaning the beliefs of Real Madrid are installed into the team, they would not cause problems if they were not playing consistently and they would not be heavy contributors to the wage bill.

Canales Is Whetting Madrids Appetite