This current crop of Real Madrid loanees is perhaps the most exciting and lauded group
the club has ever had.
It’s hard for big clubs to strike gold with their loanees. Few ever come back to become
starters, fewer still become stars. But Real Madrid’s success rate in this department
has recently been relatively high. One of the most important players in Zinedine Zidane’s
starting XI, Casemiro, had a successful spell at FC Porto before returning to the Bernabeu
and working his way into the team. Another breakout star in this year’s team, Fede
Valverde, spent a year at Deportivo.
The list goes on. Dani Carvajal, on loan to Bayer Leverkusen in the 2012-2013 season,
became one of the Bundesliga’s best right-backs before returning to Real and cementing himself
a place. Lucas Vazquez and Marco Asensio, both important contributors over the past
few seasons, succeeded during their loan spells to Espanyol earlier in their careers.
It’s a trend which is continuing. Martin Odegaard, who has been away from Real Madrid
since 2017, has developed exponential during that time.
Odegaard started his loan journey at Heerenveen, where he had a quiet campaign amongst meagre
teammates. One season later, at Vitesse, Odegaard evolved into one of the Eredevisie’s best
players. His defensive pressure numbers and expected assists (ExA) ranking among the highest
in the league.
This season, Odegaard is back in LaLiga at Real Sociedad and performing at the highest
point of his young career. Arguably Sociedad’s most important player, his offensive numbers
are elite and he leads the league in key passes per game and is currently fourth in dribbles
completed per 90.
Achraf Hakimi and Sergio Reguilon have been impressive at Dortmund and Sevilla respectively.
Hakimi, who is on the second year of his two-year loan, has proven versatile under head coach
Lucien Favre. The Moroccan has played regularly on both flanks, and, this season, has featured
regularly as a right and left winger, in a more advanced role than he’s accustomed
to.
But he’s thrived. He actually leads his team in the Champions League with four goals,
and was one of the chief attacking threats in Dortmund’s important comeback win over
Inter Milan at the Westfalenstadion. Hakimi still has to improve defensively, that’s
clear, but Zidane has hinted at his return and appears personally interested in the player’s
progress.
Reguilon is currently at Sevilla, working under former Real Madrid coach Julen Lopetegui.
At Real last season under Santiago Solari, Reguilon demonstrated just how good he can
be defensively, with rare flashes in the other direction. This season, however, Lopetegui
has unleashed his offensive potential. Reguilon, along with Jesus Navas on the opposite flank,
channel Sevilla’s attacks by providing depth and dangerous crosses. Reguilon’s ability
to combine with Nolito on both the underlap and overlap continues to create all kinds
of difficulties for opposing defenses.
Another promising young player on loan is Takefusa Kubo, currently at Mallorca. Kubo
did not feature in most of the Islanders’ matches to start the season, but has recently
grown into the team, showing his impressive technical ability with his close control and
also his creativity with the range of his passing. As a measure of the Japanese attacking
midfielder’s influence, Mallorca are reportedly already keen to extend his loan for a further
year, something which will depend on whether they can survive relegation this season.
But not all of Real Madrid’s loanees have been necessarily successful.
Dani Ceballos, after an impressive start at Arsenal, was in and out of the line-up under
Unai Emery, and has had difficulty exerting influence. With Arsenal due for further managerial
upheaval in the very near future, his situation threatens to become even more tenuous. Ceballos
has expressed his desire to stay with Arsenal publicly -- much like Mateo Kovacic did last
season at Chelsea – but whether the London club are similarly keen is a different matter.
The most disastrous spell has been that of Jesus Vallejo, who has featured in a combined
612 minutes in all competitions for Wolves. Vallejo’s most ‘high-stakes’ appearance
this season was when he started in place of injured the Ryan Bennett against Chelsea in
a 5-2 loss back in September. Since that match, Vallejo has often been left out of the squad
altogether and Real Madrid are reportedly trying to terminate his loan spell early.
Real Madrid also have three players on loan at Real Valladolid: Andrii Lunin, Javi Sanchez,
and Jorge de Frutos. As of the second week of December, though, the three players have
combined for a total of 56 minutes -- all of which came from de Frutos, the least promising
of the three. Lunin, an impressive young goalkeeper, hasn’t gotten any playing time behind goalkeeper
Jordi Masip, and Javi Sanchez -- one of Castilla’s best central defenders over the past two seasons
-- has been out with an ankle injury.
One interesting prospect that has developed better than expected is Oscar Rodriguez, who
is on the second year of his two-year loan spell at Leganes. Oscar is a threat from distance
and a set-piece specialist. Under Mauricio Pellegrino last season, he was given a free-role
in midfield where he would provide an outlet to his teammates on the counter-attack and
distribute vertical passes. Leganes have struggled this season, but Oscar’s development continues
independently of that decline. He likely won’t have a place in the Real Madrid team in the
future, but has already proven himself to be a serviceable La Liga player.
The last loanee in La Liga is Borja Mayoral, who has been quiet at Levante over the past
two seasons, and in and out of the team. While he is playing regularly now under Paco Lopez,
he’s still unlikely to have any future at his parent club.
Zinedine Zidane’s son, goalkeeper Luca, might do, though,, as he has quietly been
having a good season at Racing Santander, while Alberto Soro - a promising young winger
signed from Zaragoza over the summer – has begun a two-year loan with the club prior
to joining Madrid full time in the summer of 2021.