Real Madrid president Florentino Perez sure does love those young Brazilian players! The head of the club splashed €50 million for the signature of 21-year-old Eder Militao. By signing the center back, Jesús Vallejo will now be forced to leave Madrid.
Football – especially European football – is a cut-throat business. Academy product Jesús Vallejo is about to learn that the hard way. On Thursday, Real Madrid officially announced the signing of promising center back Eder Militao.
Militao has been a staple of the Porto back four and has worked closely with two former Madrid players. Both center back Pepe and goalkeeper Iker Casillas have guided the Portuguese side to the quarterfinals of the Champions League and second in the Liga NOS table.
What attracted the Madrid board to Militao is his 6’2″ frame and aggressive style of play. Militao plays a lot like his defensive partner Pepe and can play nicely with Sergio Ramos or Raphael Varane thanks to his great passing.
While Vallejo showed tremendous potential, injuries have derailed yet another Real Madrid academy player. The Spanish defender has had ample time to get back healthy and find a way to contribute but that has not been this case this season.
Vallejo has had numerous muscle problems in his legs over the last 12 months which has seen him play just one Champions League match and just two minutes in La Liga thus far in the 2018/2019 season.
The lack of depth at center back has really hurt the team and has forced Nacho Fernandez to play far too much.
Militao is experienced and still learning. His seven starts in the UCL out of eight matches is very impressive, as is his average match rating of 7.03.
Eder signed a six-year deal with Real Madrid and could feature prominently as soon as next season when he arrives. After being named the defensive player of the month in Portugal for the last five months, I would say this is a safe investment.
Now, expect to see Vallejo being shopped around as the club looks to offload him. It is quite possible he goes out on loan, but after spending some two years in Germany, it seems unlikely. Finding a buyer for this player will be tough, but it isn’t impossible.
Vallejo could look to take the same route as Kiko Casilla and move to one of England’s lower leagues to get back on his feet and hopefully stay healthy for an extended period of time.
I am very excited to see what Eder Militao does the remainder of this season before moving to Spain.