Real Madrid News
Real Madrid ready to rival Barcelona in the race to sign Spanish whizkid
A recent report from Diario SPORT has offered an update on the future of Pablo Munoz, who is regarded as one of the most talented players to come out of Spanish youth football in recent years.
Munoz currently plies his trade with Rayo Vallecano. An attacking midfielder by trade, the youngster has been scoring goals for fun in the youth leagues of Spanish football, notably bagging 19 goals in the Madrid Honor Division last year.
He has continued to impress onlookers, and it appears his performances have not gone unnoticed either, with Barcelona among the clubs keen on his services.
The Catalans reportedly attempted to sign the youngster last year. But the player opted to renew his contract at Rayo Vallecano. The club are expected to make another attempt to sign the attacking midfielder, but this time around, they are set to face stiff competition from Real Madrid.
According to the aforementioned report, Los Blancos have been monitoring the progress of Pablo Munoz lately. They consider him an ideal sporting prospect, who has the potential to become an asset for the club in the years to come.
Given Barcelona’s excellent record of nurturing young Spanish players, Real Madrid have a daunting task on their hands in their quest to sign Munoz.
However, with the Whites also enjoying a boom in youth development in recent years, they could make a strong case for becoming the next destination for the Rayo Vallecano starlet.
The player is yet to make a single appearance in competitive football so far, but as he continues to perform well in the youth divisions, it could only be a matter of time before he takes the next big step in his career.
In what could be a real deal breaker for Real Madrid ahead of their Copa del Rey semi-final second leg clash against Barcelona, it has been revealed that as many as three Barça will be absent from the game while another key player remains a major doubt.
The list includes the likes of Pedri, Ousmane Dembele and Andreas Christensen. The trio is certain to miss the game through respective injuries while a certain Frenkie de Jong is more or less ruled out, as per Javi Miguel.
It must be remembered that Barcelona are heading into the second leg with a 1-0 advantage. But the absence of the aforementioned players means Madrid can work on exploiting the frailties.
Despite the absence of such big names, Barcelona did pretty well against Elche in their previous outing, coming out 4-0 victorious, with the goals coming from Robert Lewandowski, Ansu Fati and Ferran Torres.
With options lacking in midfield, Xavi decided to use the likes of Sergi Roberto and Eric Garcia along with Gavi in the heart of the lineup. In any way, they do have Sergio Busquets and Franck Kessie as backups if needed.
The defence, on the other hand, was perfectly guarded by Jordi Alba, Marcos Alonso, Ronald Araujo and Jules Kounde.
One can expect Xavi to once again interchange Araujo with Kounde on the right since the Uruguayan has been rather successful in minimizing the threat of Vinicius Jr.
As far as Madrid are concerned, they are sweating over the fitness of three key defenders, namely, Antonio Rudiger, Nacho, and Ferland Mendy. Between these three, the Frenchman is out for about a month while Rudiger and Nacho are expected to be back before the Clasico.
If there are no casualties against Real Valladolid, Madrid will have a perfect midfield and attack, with only Mariano Diaz missing.
