The Big Risk of the International Break

17 Real Madrid players left the Spanish capital to join their national teams in this international break. Even Zinedine Zidane left Spain to attend the UEFA Coach Forum at Nyon (Switzerland) with the best managers of Europe, so few players stay in Madrid to train and prepare the next game against Levante on the 9th of September.

Real Madrid footballers will play 18 games in 17 different cities, travelling 128.500 kilometers in this time. Most of them will fight to get a spot in the next World Cup in Russia, but the U-21 footballers will play a friendly game and a qualifying game for the next Euro. Dani Ceballos or Marcos Llorente are among these players.

Brazilian footballers will need to travel to Brazil and Colombia to play against Ecuador and Colombia, so Casemiro and Marcelo won’t have time to rest. Besides, Keylor Navas travels to the United States and then to Costa Rica to face Mexico on the 6th of September, so he’ll be the last one to land in the Spanish capital. Perhaps, Zidane decides to give him some rest against his former team, Levante, and Casilla could make his season debut. These American players will travel 65.500 kilometers in these days.

European players have also very important fixtures. Spain play against Italy on Saturday at Santiago Bernabéu, a key game to qualify for Russia. Sergio Ramos, Dani Carvajal, Isco, Marco Asensio, Nacho Fernández or Lucas Vázquez will play in their stadium, so at least they won’t have to take a plane across the ocean.

Cristiano Ronaldo will have the opportunity to play again with his national team against Faroe Islands at home and against Hungary. Gareth Bale, after facing controversy with Real Madrid, will be the star of Wales in their meeting against Austria and Moldova.

Karim Benzema is one of the few players who will stay in the Spanish capital because Didier Deschamps didn’t include him again in the list with France. Raphael Varane also misses these games with France because he’s still recovering from an injury.