Real Madrid: Is the future top scorer already on the team?

Is Real Madrid’s goal-scoring solution already on the roster?

Real Madrid seem to be targeting Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland above anyone else, as they are on a quest to find a new top goalscorer. Last season, Karim Benzema was the only player on Real with at least 10 goals in all competitions, and he failed to score 20 goals in his 36 matches played as the main striker.

So Los Blancos need to find a new solution. Benzema is a world-class player who can score or assist, as he also led the team with nine assists in all competitions in 2019-2020. But he can’t be the primary scorer. That wasn’t his role when Cristiano Ronaldo in the team, and that won’t be his role going forward when Real find a new top scorer.

Since Benzema is one of the team’s best players and is still an ideal starter, Real Madrid would probably prefer to find a wide forward who can score 40 goals in a campaign. Nobody can be counted on to directly replace Ronaldo, but in Mbappe, Los Blancos could sign a top-class wide forward who can mostly replace that production. Or even exceed it, but that’s a conversation for another day.

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As optimistic as Madridistas are about signing Mbappe, Haaland, or even both, even signing one of those players is far from a guarantee. And neither will be available until at least 2021, with some suggesting they may not be available until 2022.

But could Real Madrid have a world-class, 40-goal scorer on their roster right now? In 2018, Los Blancos signed Vinicius Junior from Flamengo.

He’s been hailed as a future Ballon d’Or winner, but as great as Vini is, he seems like more of a creator a la Eden Hazard than a player solely focused on banging in 30 goals in a season.

The same can be said for Rodrygo Goes, though he is a more prolific scorer. Per FBRef.com, he led all players on Real with 0.62 goals per 90 minutes in all competitions despite not taking penalties.

Rodrygo could be a top scorer for Real one day, but it is still far too early to tell. Zinedine Zidane has taken the wise approach of continuing to boost his confidence in Castilla, but he does have the upside to be a global superstar. Again, time will tell.

Finally, Benzema is still effective but has only a couple of years left of top-class football. Hence why Real Madrid have interest in Haaland and why they spent 60 million euros on former Eintracht Frankfurt forward Luka Jovic.

In 2018-2019, Jovic was a breakout star for Eintracht, scoring 27 goals between the Bundesliga and Europa League. He didn’t get to play much behind Benzema in his first season at the Santiago Bernabeu, as expected, but he did score twice and show those same goal-scoring instincts.

If Jovic could score 27 goals with Frankfurt while sharing duties with Sebastian Haller and Ante Rebic, he could conceivably score much more than that as the main man in Real. Zidane and the team seem to trust him, but the 2020-2021 season will be a huge one for the Serbian international, who had an unfortunate spring.

Real Madrid must have faith in what they are building. dark. Next

Rodrygo and Jovic can be solutions for Los Blancos if Mbappe and Haaland are unachievable, but Real always feel the crunch to win titles. They won’t wait long to find out, and if Mbappe and Haaland are affordable in the next two summer transfer windows, Real will move to sign.

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