Real Madrid: No return to the Santiago Bernabeu in 2020?
By Ben Sundock
If and when the La Liga season resumes, Real Madrid will not be calling the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu home. Where will the team be playing instead?
The coronavirus has really done a number on clubs around Spain’s top division. Teams are struggling financially and there has been little indication given from the Spanish Football Federation as to when matches will actually be given the go-ahead to resume.
While the layoff from matches has helped a couple of Real Madrid players – Eden Hazard and Marco Asensio who are both rehabbing from injury – this long break from play could hurt the form of others.
Real Madrid has been managing the break in action rather well as players have continued to train individually at their homes across the city and manager Zinedine Zidane has even gone as far as having a team Zoom call to check in on how everyone is doing.
One more wrench that has been thrown at Los Blancos is the matter of where they will play their remaining home matches.
Due to the Santiago Bernabeu being used as a temporary supply facility for medical supplies as health care providers combat the spread of COVID-19 across the Iberian peninsula and remolding projects being done on the stadium, there is serious doubt another match will be played at the stadium until the fall of 2020, according to Marca.
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Instead, it is likely that the remaining matches will be played at the Castilla and youth academy stadium, the Estadio Alfredo Di Stefano.
This, of course, should not be as big of a change for the players since the train in and around the 6,000 seat stadium at the Valadebebas training ground. Plus, with no fans expected to be allowed in attendance until January of 2021, this shouldn’t be all that big of a deal.
It seems like the club has been planning for this eventuality for some time and it doesn’t seem like it will affect the players’ day-to-day routines.
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The Ciudad de Real Madrid where the team trains weekly is being prepared to welcome the first team back on Friday as things stand, so, is there an outside chance we see football in the next month?
Let’s keep our fingers crossed that medical experts feel comfortable having play resume and it is cleared by the higher-ups. Spain and Italy, outside of China, have been hit the hardest by the pandemic in the last couple of months which still casts doubt if the campaign can be finished before mid-July.