Real Madrid Castilla centre-back Mario Rivas is "gaining options" to be called up to the first team in order to replace Raul Asencio, according to a report from AS.
The report states that Jose Mourinho considers him his favourite option from the academy, and He has a lot of options to start for Real Madrid and replace Raul Asencio in the squad. It is a bit of a surprise that Joan Martinez is not the one who is being favoured to be brought into the first team by Mourinho, considering how highly everyone at the club rates the player.
Even so, Rivas is also a really good player and has proven in the past that he can be trusted by Mourinho.
Mario Rivas was great for Real Madrid in the pre-season friendlies
Mourinho played Rivas in quite a few games in the preseason friendlies, and it is fair to say that the Spaniard was quite impressive. In those matches, he rarely put a foot wrong with the ball, and even though there are things that he has to improve on without the ball, he still did everything to a very decent level.
He has started the season well with Castilla too and has looked like one of their more solid players so far.
The one game where he did make an error, though, was the Under-20 Intercontinental Cup final against the Santiago Wanderers at the Bernabeu. His mistake led to a goal for the away side, which wasn't the best bit of football he has played this year.
However, if you don't include that, the rest of the season has been really good for the Spanish central defender. Hopefully, Rivas is able to make an impact if he ever gets a chance to play professional minutes for the first team.
Rivas has a lot of potential. He is not the tallest centre-back in Real Madrid's academy, but he is certainly one of the more mature ones that have come out of the system recently. If he is able to get a good amount of minutes for the first team, his chances of being a top-level player elsewhere will go up substantially, which is what everyone wants in the first place.
Hopefully, Rivas is able to live up to the task if he ever plays professional minutes for Real Madrid, and hopefully he's able to leave a mark and even join the first team at some point in the future.
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