Holidays are over for Real Madrid players. The footballers who weren’t in the FIFA World Cup at Russia started to work on Monday 16th of July thinking in the challenging new season and especially in the European Supercup on the 15th of August against the city rivals Atletico Madrid. It was time to meet the new coach Julen Lopetegui.
The new coach directed his first training season with 19 players and many youngsters. The main news was seeing Vinicius Junior and Lunin, the Ukrainian goalkeeper. Fabio Coentrao and Lucas Silva, who are also part of the squad, weren’t present at Valdebebas because the club doesn’t count on them. The complete list is: Casilla, Luca, Lunin, Vallejo, Theo, Llorente, Ceballos, Benzema, Bale, Mayoral, Vinicius, Odegaard, Raúl de Tomás, Valverde, Óscar, Reguilón, Quezada, Sergio López, Javi Sánchez, León and Álex.
We could see Gareth Bale at Valdebebas in the first day of an important season for him. After Cristiano Ronaldo’s departure, the Welshman is the new star of the team and many eyes are set on him. Besides, it was his birthday so he arrived with a big smile to the physics tests. Besides, also Karim Benzema was in the Spanish capital after watching on TV his teammates from France winning the World Cup at Moscow.
Many other players have more days of holidays for being in the World Cup. Keylor Navas, Sergio Ramos, Isco, Carvajal, Nacho, Lucas Vazquez, Marco Asensio, Toni Kroos, Mateo Kovacic, Luka Modric, Casemiro, Marcelo or Raphael Varane can still enjoy some more days off.
It will take time to see what Julen Lopetegui wants about the team. However, the Spanish coach is very happy in these first days: “Coming back to the club is very special”, the manager said to the club media. “I come to the best club in the world and the most exigent one. I’m convinced to meet the requirements and we have to start working for the first title, the 15th of August”, Lopetegui commented.
