Real Madrid confirm 21-year-old has joined La Liga rivals

Real Madrid have struggled in recent years when it comes to bringing through their own youth stars into the senior team. They have had a number of highly-rated players in their ranks, who have never ended up getting a chance to show what they can do at the top level for Los Blancos and eventually been let go.

The perfect example of this Achraf Hakimi. He has left Real Madrid and gone on to become one of the best right-backs in world football. On the other hand, the club have signed Fran Garcia back from Rayo Vallecano this summer, after his impressive performances for them.

Yet, it looks like they are ready to let go of a number of youngsters this summer is well. And initially, the expectation was that Rafa Marin would be departing on a permanent basis.

Thankfully, that won’t be the case. As reported by the club’s official website, Real Madrid and Alaves have agreed the loan of Marin for this season, until 30 June 2024.

Real Madrid confirm 21-year-old has joined La Liga rivals

Marin has been one of the most highly-rated prospects in Spanish football for some time now. So much so that he has even been linked with clubs like Chelsea and PSG, despite not even making his debut for Real Madrid yet.

At 21 years of age, he needs to be playing regular football at the senior level. That is not expected to come at Real Madrid any time soon, with the likes of Antonio Rudiger, David Alaba, Eder Militao and Nacho ahead of him in the pecking order.

Thus, leaving on loan might be the best step for Marin at this stage of his career. He will get to play La Liga football at Alaves. And the fact that Real Madrid have only loaned him out suggests that they still have faith that he will play for the first-team soon enough.