Real Madrid Transfers: Three surprising sales that could be made in 2022

2. Rodrygo Goes

Another departure from Real Madrid that I believe could come as a surprise is that of Rodrygo Goes, and there are compelling grounds to support it. If I were to describe Rodrygo’s season thus far, I’d use terms like infrequent, unreliable, and static.

Don’t get me wrong: the Brazilian has had his moments of brilliance and acclaim, but they have come in spurts. Over the course of a dozen matches, his game appears disjointed, uneven, and selectively good. All of this is diametrically opposed to what he was signed for after a year of obtaining his Brazilian companion and counterpart Vinicius Jr, who has taken the globe by storm.

What he now brings to the table is the ability to make decent runs, generate few or no opportunities, and score goals on rare occasions, which is just not up to Real Madrid’s standards. His maturation appears to have stalled, with little progress and simply survival in the squad. Nothing he possesses is sufficient for the management to totally trust the 21-year-old.

Rodrygo has struggled to break into the club’s starting XI, with Carlo Ancelotti’s refusal to rotate the players sharing some of the blame. The Italian manager likes Marco Asensio – a player with adequate reasons to be on this list – above Rodrygo, which I feel illustrates how bad the latter’s situation is right now.

All of the foregoing in no way diminishes the Brazilian’s talent and potential, but what concerns me is that it will take him a long time to bridge the divide that Vinicius has overcome, leaving Rodrygo perplexed and alienated, and the problem is exacerbated by the fact that Real Madrid is racing against the clock as the president is already planning a revolution in the front domain, which may further call for no place in the team and an eventual departure of the prodigy.