For the most part this World Cup was a tremendous tournament for Real Madrid. The club had a number of players shine during the tournament with Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham being two of the biggest stars, and new signing Marc Cucurella bringing home the trophy to the Bernabeu. However this tournament has also been a bit of a slap in the face to Real Madrid when it comes to players they missed out on signing having top class performances and that is exactly the case for one of Spain's unsung heroes of the tournament.
As was reported by MadridXtra on X back in May of 2022, Carlo Ancelotti was a big fan of midfielder Fabian Ruiz, who was still with Napoli at the time and tried his best to convince the Real Madrid hierarchy to sign him but was ultimately rejected. Real Madrid ended up signing Aurelien Tchouameni that summer and Fabian Ruiz went to PSG and we all know how that's gone.
Real Madrid could look very different if they listened to Ancelotti
Hindsight is a great thing isn't it? It shows why when one of the most experienced managers in football suggests signing a player odds are he knows what he's talking about. Ancelotti coached Fabian Ruiz during his one season in charge at Napoli in 18/19 and clearly saw something in the player during what were still the early stages of his career and three years later believed he was finally ready to make the jump to a bg club and wanted to reunite with the player at the Bernabeu but for some unknown reason a move never happened.
The Spaniard ended up joining PSG were he's gone on to find incredible success as a focal point of their midfield and now with after his World Cup performance has established himself as one of the most underrated midfielders in the world, surely making Real Madrid think twice about what they missed out on for not listening to Ancelotti. Not only did Carlo Ancelotti want to sign Fabian Ruiz, Zinedine Zidane was also an fan of the midfielder during his time in charge but he never got a move over the line either.
As mentioned earlier Ancelotti tried to bring in Fabian Ruiz in the summer of 2022, the summer when Real ended up signing Aurelien Tchouameni, which for the most part has been a good signing. Los Blancos have won major titles with Tchouameni in the team so it's not like Real Madrid missed out on Ruiz and signed a complete flop.
Real Madrid are still in the market for a midfielder this summer so Fabian Ruiz could still end up making the move to the Bernabeu but unfortunately it's not going to happen. The Spaniard is a key player in Luis Enrique's system and with his World Cup performance may have established himself as the best midfielder at PSG showing he can still produce outside of the PSG system, something Vitinha and Joao Neves failed to do this summer. Ruiz's price tag definitely just shot up through the roof so Real Madrid will have to look elsewhere if they still hope to reinforce their midfield this summer.
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