4 young players whose Real Madrid careers were ruined by Zidane

BORJA MAYORAL

Borja Mayoral was given his first-team breakthrough by Zinedine Zidane in 2016, but five years on, he remains a Madrid player but has spent years on loan. The same manager who signed Luka Jovic for 60 million euros never gave an academy player from the club any minutes. Mayoral did well with Levante last year and is showing positive signs with Roma too.

Mayoral’s market value has also surged by 7 million euros in the last seven months, which is a marker on his consistent performances in both, Spain and Italy, over the last season and a half. It is unlikely that he will have a long-term future at the club with Jovic returning from loan in the summer, especially if Zizou is still at the helm.

Zidane, for all that he has done, is a partial manager for choosing players for his relation over quality. Four players have already shown themselves to be capable enough in different sides and at the rate at which he is overlooking players, the manager may be responsible for the exits of some other players from the current set of stars in the making.