Gonzalo Garcia burst onto the scene at the Club World Cup last summer. With Kylian Mbappé missing the start of the tournament due to illness, the Real Madrid academy graduate got his chance.
Garcia scored four goals with one assist in six games as Los Blancos made it to the semi-finals of the tournament. This included the winning goal against Juventus in the round of 16. He led the line as a lone center-forward and also played up front alongside Vinicius Junior.
Mbappé returned to action after the group stage and, as a substitute, netted the winning goal against Borussia Dortmund in the quarter-finals. Xabi Alonso then started the Frenchman against Paris Saint-Germain, which pushed Garcia into a more attacking midfield role.
Real Madrid lost to PSG 4-0 and were knocked out of the tournament. This was devastating for Los Blancos as they would have seen it as their obligation to win the inaugural competition in its expanded format.
Since the Club World Cup Gonzalo Garcia has lacked game time
Given his form at the Club World Cup, you would have thought Garcia would play a prominent role this season. However, he has made just nine appearances in La Liga, of which he has started just one, without having any goal involvements. Garcia has made just two substitute appearances in the Champions League, but did not score in either. He did make an assist for Brahim Diaz, but that was in a 5-0 win over Kairat Almaty.
When asked about the 21-year-old's lack of game time, Alonso was quoted by Fabrizio Romano, saying, "His performance at the World Cup was spectacular. But we didn't have Kylian Mbappé. Now we have Kylian. Gonzalo may not be playing all the minutes he deserves, but he's very intelligent… he’s always ready."
Alonso is not assuring that Garcia will get more game time. This is strange as Real Madrid has drawn their last three La Liga games. In their last match, which ended 1-1 against Girona, Garcia was only brought on in the last minute.
The most game time Garcia has had this season is with the Spain U21 side. In five European U21 Championship Qualifying matches, Garcia has scored three times and provided one assist. He started as a center-forward in all of the games and captained them on two occasions. Garcia has a promising future, but he may need to leave Real Madrid to ensure he continues his development.