The three best January transfers in Real Madrid history

1. Marcelo

Casemiro might be an excellent January signing, but there’s someone who has been an even better January signing for Real Madrid. It is Casemiro’s compatriot and the current Real Madrid captain, Marcelo.

We don’t need to talk about what the best left-back of this generation has achieved at Real Madrid. He is a player who has won the most trophies at Real Madrid, along with the legendary Paco Gento. But it is worth talking about how we got a young Marcelo for just 6.5 million euros from Fluminense in November 2006 and burdened him with the responsibility of replacing Roberto Carlos, who left after that season. President Ramon Calderon hailed him, a young player yet to prove himself, as “one of the jewels of world football.”

Needless to say, there were a lot of expectations on Marcelo, and there was some pressure on him even before his signing was made official in January and he made his Real Madrid debut. He was expected to play for Castilla like his fellow new signing Higuain, but Fabio Capello wouldn’t oblige and used him in a few first-team games in January itself.

From the next season, Marcelo was tasked with starting in Roberto Carlos’ position. There were some doubts regarding the teenager’s abilities, but Marcelo had proved with his excellent performances that sometimes it is not very difficult to replace the irreplaceable players too.

After that, there was no looking back for Marcelo. He did have his ups and downs throughout his career, like any other player. But he made sure that nothing would stop him from being himself, and made sure that Real Madrid’s players on the left-flank are always an unstoppable force.

Now, after 15 years, at the age of 33, Marcelo is in the twilight of his Real Madrid career. He will go down in the history as a legendary left-back, and perhaps one of the best January transfers of all time.