Real Madrid have signed Granada centre-back Oscar Naasei, as reported by journalist Matteo Moretto on Thursday afternoon.
The player will not join the first team, but will train and play with Castilla with a reference to one day feature for the senior team as well.
There were a lot of La Liga clubs interested in signing Naasei this summer, but Real Madrid managed to beat all of them in the race. He has already completed his medical with Los Blancos, and he will be an exciting player to follow as he already has senior level experience.
The thing with Castilla is that a central defender, at this moment, is the last position they need any kind of reinforcement in.
Real Madrid Castilla already have enough talented central defenders
Castilla already have the likes of Joan Martinez, Mario Rivas, Diego Aguado, Lamini Fati and a couple more good ones in the U19s selection; a signing of this calibre would be nice, but also unnecessary.
Unless Real Madrid plan on fully shifting Diego Aguado to the left-back spot, or Mario Rivas is going to be training with the first team, this move makes little sense.
Real Madrid needed a striker much more desperately than yet another centre-back for Castilla, and even though they have decent players in nearly every position, the centre-back chart is probably the deepest position on the roster.
However, it is worth noting that he would already have more experience than all of these central defenders. Naasei has played in the Segunda Division for the last two seasons, so when he does arrive at Castilla, he could just be an automatic starter as he would be the most experienced player out of any of those.
That does not necessarily mean Naasei would be the most talented as well, but it seems like at least one of Castilla’s current options in the heart of their defense will have to use his talents elsewhere.
Aguado is a capable left-back, which could be the future for him – at least for Castilla – while Rivas continues to be selected for the first team. This could open up a spot for Naasei in the starting XI for Castilla.
It also begs the question: would it not have been better for Naasei to stay at Granada on loan for a year and then join Real Madrid? Going from senior-level football to reserve team football – although still competitive, official and against other senior teams – is an obvious downgrade in quality, which is why it makes little sense at the moment. I guess we will find out.
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