Remember when Fabinho played for Real Madrid?
By Ben Sundock
It’s time to take a trip down memory lane and remember a world-class player who was a Real Madrid player at one time. Brazilian midfielder Fábio Henrique Tavares, better known as Fabinho, had a short but memorable stay with Real Madrid between 2012 and 2013.
It is hard to believe that Real Madrid had one of the best defensive midfielders in the world at one point in their youth academy, but didn’t suffer when they sold him before he could really make an impact.
Before Casemiro took over for Xabi Alonso and Sami Khedira, Real Madrid was the first club the great Fabinho made his European debut with.
Let’s take a look back at the fascinating year for the Brazilian who is now a regular in Liverpool’s starting XI.
In June 2012, at 18, Fabinho was sold from Brazilian powerhouse Fluminense to Rio Ave in Portugal on a six-year permanent deal. Just a month later, Los Blancos signed the CDM on a year-long loan to play with the Castilla outfit.
While working with La Fabrica and the head coach of the reserve team at the time – Alberto Toril – Fabinho began to show his true potential. He made 30 appearances for the Castilla team – including 28 starts – and was catching the eyes of scouts around Europe.
Three alternatives to Kylian Mbappe. light. Trending
With the season coming to a close, Real Madrid first team manager Zinedine Zidane gave the young player one appearance in La Liga in a 6-2 rout against Malaga in early May. Coming on with just 16 minutes to play, Fabinho replaced Fabio Coentrao in defense and actually contributed an assist on the sixth and final goal that day.
Los Blancos, of course, moved on from Mourinho that summer and transitioned to Carlo Ancelotti, so, the team let the loan expire and Fabinho returned to Rio Ave without receiving much recognition from Madridistas.
Throwback to when Jose Mourinho gave Fabinho his Real Madrid debut in 2013 🧐 pic.twitter.com/qIDuP6dvj1
— GOAL (@goal) May 5, 2020
But, Rio Ave still did not see a place for the CDM in the first team lineup. Therefore, they loaned him to AS Monaco for two seasons between 2013 and 2015.
It was in Ligue 1 that Fabinho really made a name for himself and was part of the team that featured Kylian Mbappe and other future stars.
It’s funny to remember that the talented CDM was with Real Madrid when he was valued at $1.10 million and now he is valued at just over $60 million with Liverpool.
dark. Next. Real Madrid could swap fullbacks with Sevilla
As I said, the club does not regret letting Fabinho go back to Portugal after the one-year loan deal since Casemiro came along just a couple of years later. It’s truly hard to believe that such a quality player was on Real Madrid’s books not long ago and just before he really broke out and became a star.