Real Madrid: Ranking the top five players in Castilla
Real Madrid is often seen as the club that buys the best players from different parts of the world. Some people hail the transfer policy and appreciate the superb work done by the scouting department, while the rest criticise the club by saying Real Madrid can only buy talent produced by other clubs. 12 years ago FC Barcelona’s official Twitter handle tweeted “Barca produces talent, Real Madrid buys talent”. Even Gerard Pique would go on to comment the same, in the summer of 2013.
Yes, Real Madrid does spend a lot to sign players. But what people ignore most of the time is the strength of Real Madrid’s academy, which has produced some of the best players of all time who made a name for themselves in the history of football. Real Madrid’s youth setup named La Fabrica, which means “The Factory”, has produced legends like Iker Casillas, Raul, Michel, Guti, Alvaro Arbeloa, Chendo, Manolo Sanchis, Emilio Butragueno, Vicente Del Bosque and many more superstars who went on to achieve a lot in their careers.
A report from the CIES football observatory claims that Real Madrid have the most number of academy graduates playing for different teams in the top-5 European leagues while being the best academy in Spain. Even today the current first-team squad includes academy graduates like Dani Carvajal, Nacho, Lucas Vazquez and Mariano, while players like Casemiro, Rodrygo Goes, Martin Odegaard, Fede Valverde and Vinicius Jr have the experience of playing for Real Madrid Castilla.
The quality of La Fabrica has always been undermined, and the academy officials have put in relentless effort over the years to keep producing some brilliant talent who can adapt to any system. And the current Castilla team is on the way to achieve great heights with a manager like Raul at the helm with some world-class talents being added to the roster every year.
The current crop of youngsters include a lot of talents who have shown the potential to make it big in the future, and the 2020 UEFA Youth League success is a testament to that. Let us have a look at some of the best talents in the current Castilla team, and rank the best five players.