Real Madrid letting one of Zinedine Zidane’s favorites seek new opportunity
Real Madrid right winger Lucas Vazquez has been something of an institution at the club, but he could be gone this summer.
It seems risky to predict what will happen to Lucas Vazquez this summer, because the Real Madrid utility man has seemingly always been there for Los Blancos.
Vazquez, now 29, joined Real’s youth team in 2007 as a 16-year-old. Save for a one-year loan at Espanyol, Real are the only club he has known, making him similar to another veteran glue guy in Nacho Fernandez.
Right now, though, it’s hard to guess Vazquez’s future with Real Madrid. The club has an awful lot of young talent at the forward position, specifically teenagers Vinicius Junior and Rodrygo Goes. And while Vazquez is willing to play at right back more often to stay, Real are expected to bring back right back Alvaro Odriozola in 2020-2021 as Dani Carvajal’s true backup.
According to a report from Edu Pidal of Onda Cero’s El Transistor, Real Madrid do not plan on offering Vazquez an extension after the 2020-2021 season. Furthermore, they have allowed Vazquez to look for other clubs that would be interested in signing him, giving one of their proudest academy products the opportunity to seek a better situation elsewhere if he feels that way.
But Vazquez may not feel that way. Like Nacho, he could resist a move away from the Santiago Bernabeu due to his love for the club. Besides a special bond he shares with Real Madrid, Vazquez is a known favorite of Zinedine Zidane’s. It’s to a point where Zidane could push the club to keep Vazquez for longer.
Aside from the youth movement and Vazquez’s admittedly mediocre attacking play, the economic situation makes Real more interested than usual in selling Vazquez for some cash. They are not financially desperate, but the club wants to raise nearly 200 million euros, perhaps in order to afford Kylian Mbappe in the 2021 summer transfer window.
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Vazquez has been rumored to exit before and nothing came of it. And it’s entirely possible nothing comes of this either, especially with Zidane in his corner. However, if there’s a summer window in which Vazquez could actually leave, then it is this strange one.