Real Madrid‘s love for the Brazilian player pool just seems to be getting more as most recently, the Galacticos have been linked with 15-year-old Endrick of Palmeiras. The youngster shook the football world with his breathtaking performance in the Copinha (a São Paulo under-20 cup tournament), where he helped the Palmeiras under-20 team win the tournament for the first time.
In a tournament where most of the players were about 20 years of age, Endrick stood out, despite being 5 years younger than most of them, and won the best player award for his tournament-winning contribution for Palmeiras.
This is no small feat. Indeed, this is a tournament where some of the best Brazilian players in the world made their initial strides towards stardom–and Endrick scored 6 goals in it, joint second-highest.
As a result, there is a lot of hype surrounding the youngster and, naturally, a lot of top European clubs are now on alert. And, obviously, Real Madrid is one among them.
The Galacticos have been proactive when it comes to signing Brazilian youngsters with tremendous potential. Los Blancos snapped up Vinicius, Rodrygo, and Reinier even before the former two turned 18.
Real Madrid may have to pay 40 million euros for Endrick
So far, it has been a story of mixed success. While Vinicius is tearing LaLiga apart, Rodrygo is nowhere near his potential but is still a decent squad player for the Galacticos while Reinier Jesus is going through an abysmal loan at Borussia Dortmund (and the fact that he is still there suggests that the Merengues may have forgotten him/given up on him).
So, in short, it has not been a fool-proof strategy. In fact, before the explosion of Vinicius, some might have even considered it a total failure.
And now, it seems as though Madrid is going to try their luck once again in the Brazilian market with the acquisition of Endrick. It makes sense. After all, he is one of the best–if not the best–young talents in South America.
Having said that, however, the price quoted for him is quite astronomical, given that he is yet to play a single game for the senior team. According to reports, Los Blancos may have to pay up to 40 million euros for the youngster–and that may not be the best thing to do.
For a player who is yet to play professionally in the Brazilian Serie A, it is a huge gamble to pay such an absurd amount. One might say that Florentino Perez paid more for Vinicius despite him also not playing a single professional game but they must also look at Rodrygo and Reinier.
Even in the case of Vini, it worked because the Real Madrid number 20 was given a lot of chances before he could explode.
Indeed, it will be hard to recall the last time the Galacticos showed so much faith in a youngster and gave him so many opportunities to reach his potential, despite continuously disappointing in the final third. In fact, there is only one case–and that is of Vinicius–where the Merengues actually groomed a young attacker to become an elite player within their own first-team.
In a sense, Vinicius was lucky because Cristiano Ronaldo had left by the time he came to Madrid and the left-wing role was completely his–even after the signing of Hazard, as the Belgian’s Real Madrid journey has been almost a nightmare, to put it simply.
Is Vinicius Jr. the anomaly for Real Madrid?
With no alternatives, both Zidane and Ancelotti had little to no choice but to groom the former Flamengo starlet to become the player that he is today.
So, the question is: Will Endrick get the same chance?
Looking at history, Vinicius is an anomaly, and outliers are never considered while making inferences. For Endrick to be worth the reported sum, he will have to have a lot of things going in his favour.
With the arrival of Mbappe and potentially Haaland, it is unlikely that he will have the opportunity in Madrid when he turns 18. So, the next obvious logical choice will be to send him to loan like Reinier Jesus.
And once that happens, it is out of Real Madrid’s hands. Simply put, Real Madrid will be paying 40 million for a player whose growth they will have almost no hand in. It is a gamble–almost every signing is–but one where the Merengues have to rely on another club to win big.
That’s why Real Madrid should not jump the gun and pay an astronomical amount of money for a player who only just made some name for himself. The Brazilian model might be considered a success due to the rise of Vinicius but once again, outliers should not be used to make inferences.