Under Florentino Perez, one of the biggest problems Real Madrid have had is integrating youngsters into the squad and believing in their exceptional homegrown players. Not everyone can make it at Madrid, of course, and whlie players like Alvaro Rodriguez and Hugo Duro have gone on to become quality La Liga players, few at the Valdebebas necessarily regret letting them go.
Still, Real Madrid are starting to come to a reckoning as Barcelona skate to two straight league titles built almost entirely around homegrown superstars, whereas Real's best academy player, Nico Paz, was the best player in Serie A last season but appears to be closer to a permanent sale away from Madrid than a return to the Santiago Bernabeu in a midfield that could really use his quality.
Real Madrid fans are still frustrated with Florentino and letting top young talents go or not giving them chances, and the case of Victor Munoz is beginning to highlight a different point that Real do have to be worried about in the long term.
Barcelona are a better opportunity than Real Madrid for some
Munoz has signed with Liverpool after an amazing season at Osasuna, and while Real Madrid decided not to buy him back from their La Liga counterparts, there were many around the club who did want to see the talented winger at the Bernabeu after playing well enough to make it to the Spanish national team.
But what's really telling is this information from Mario Cortegana of The Athletic, via the Madrid Zone. Sources close to Victor Munoz revealed that the young man was actually very interested in Barcelona, who nearly signed him instead of Liverpool, because he saw an easier path to the top of the game and their first team than he did as a Real Madrid player. He himself was not exactly thrilled about returning to Madrid anyway, because he felt that it is too difficult to crack the first team, viewing the fates of other academy players.
Munoz's sentiment is not something for Real Madrid to brush off lightly as the musings of one player, because it is becoming a pattern that young players are not being given chances at Real Madrid and that players are increasingly turning their backs on the club in order to seek minutes elsewhere.
But for a player to want Barcelona over Real Madrid is really a slap in the face. The problem becomes if more and more young players start thinking this, Real Madrid will have an almost barren academy, and beyond missing out on the next big thing or the next quality right back like Dani Carvajal, Real Madrid run out of the sorts of players like Alvaro Rodriguez and Hugo Duro they can sell to other La Liga clubs to support their spending on stars.
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