Real Madrid: How does Rodrygo’s rookie season measure up?
Real Madrid right winger Rodrygo Goes had an encouraging first season.
Florentino Perez has been signing the world’s best young players over the past couple of transfer windows in the hopes of finding Real Madrid’s next global superstar. In Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes, Perez has signed two forward prospects from Brazil’s top flight in each of the past two windows, and both wingers have shown world-class ability.
Rodrygo joined Real from Santos for 50 million euros in the summer 2019 transfer window, and while his first season may end up shortened due to COVID-19, there’s enough of a sample to get a good feel for what he can offer.
Of course, the 19-year-old is still a developing player, as evidenced by Zinedine Zidane’s decision to send him back to Castilla midway through the season. Even so, Rodrygo was the team’s best right winger due to Gareth Bale’s injuries and struggles, and it honestly wasn’t close.
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According to FBRef.com, the Real Madrid rookie averaged 0.80 goals and assists per 90 minutes.
If you take out penalty kicks, that means no player had more goals and assists per 90 on Los Blancos than him, among all players with a minimum of 200 minutes played in all competitions. So yes, Rodrygo was actually more efficient than Karim Benzema.
That’s not to say Rodrygo was “better” than Benzema, but that he led Real Madrid in this statistic is incredibly impressive.
Rodrygo didn’t take much time to adjust to La Liga either. Yes, he’s still growing, but he didn’t look out of place at the Santiago Bernabeu in the starting lineup.
He scored within seconds of his inclusion as a substitute in a September win over Osasuna, recording the second-fastest goal in Madrid history behind Ronaldo.
The former Santos star also had a defining Champions League performance one month later, recording a perfect hat trick against Galatasaray.
Contextualizing his first season in a top five league in Europe, Rodrygo had quite the special rookie campaign for Real Madrid. His movement off the ball was tremendous, and he showed far more polish than most players his age. According to WhoScored.com, Rodrygo completed nearly 90 percent of his passes, which is insane for any forward, let alone a teenager in his first season for the world’s most prestigious club.
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The 19-year-old clearly has a bright future ahead of him, but he’s already an effective player in the present. Real want to keep his confidence high by having him play in Castilla, but if they need more from him post-Gareth Bale, Rodrygo showed he’s already one of La Liga’s better players. And to think right winger technically isn’t even the right-footed star’s preferred position.