Real Madrid were dealt a blow in their pursuit of wunderkind Italian goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma. Donnarumma, who was rumored to snub AC Milan by refusing to sign a new contract, put pen to paper and extended his stay at the club. What does this mean for Real Madrid?
As ESPN FC report, Donnarumma had a change of heart, and reversed his decision to reject a new contract at Milan. His previous contract was set to expire in 2018, but earlier today he signed a contract keeping him at the club until 2021. This certainly complicates things for Real Madrid.
It’s technically not impossible that Real Madrid could still sign Donnarumma this summer. After all, Milan could just be locking down his signature in order to drive up the buyout clause.
But that scenario is highly unlikely. This signals that the keeper has decided Milan is the best place for him in the immediate future. Real Madrid will either have to make do with Keylor Navas, or, alternatively, go on the market for another top-class keeper like David de Gea or Thibaut Courtois.
A while back, I did a deep-dive analysis of all of Real Madrid’s goalkeeper options. In that article, I said that Donnarumma was too young and inexperienced to command Real Madrid’s goal. However, that article was written with the premise that Keylor Navas would be sold on. At that time, that was a pretty safe assumption. Navas was a wreck in front of goal, his positioning was off, and it looked like his form had taken a nose-dive after his summer surgery.
Real Madrid will either have to make do with Keylor Navas, or go on the market for another top-class keeper.
But that was then, and this is now. Both Real Madrid’s manager Zinedine Zidane and the rest of Real Madrid’s squad reportedly have tremendous confidence in Navas. The Costa-Rican keeper turned his form around at the end of last season, showing signs that he was still worthy of being Madrid’s #1.
With that being the case, now would have been the perfect time to bring Donnarumma into the squad. Donnarumma is young. At only 18 years of age, he still has time to develop into a first choice goalkeeper.
Real Madrid could have implemented a two-goalkeeper system like Barcelona had with Marc-André ter Stegen and Claudio Bravo, or Atletico Madrid had with Jan Oblak and Miguel Ángel Moya. Between the Copa del Rey, La Liga, Champions League, friendlies, and the Club World Cup, Madrid have enough matches to play that both Donnarumma and Navas could have gotten significant game time.
Alas, it seems this opportunity has passed. Real Madrid will now need to either make do with Keylor Navas, or bring in another goalkeeper who is less likely to be satisfied with sharing game time with the Tico-man.
This does not mean that Donnarumma has no future at Real Madrid. Madrid could still spring for the keeper next year. But for now, it looks increasingly likely that Keylor Navas will get at least one more year to shine as Madrid’s starting man between the sticks. Let’s hope we get more of 2017 Keylor Navas, and less of 2016 Keylor Navas.
Next: Chelsea pushing to sign Danilo from Real Madrid