Ten and a half years ago, Real Madrid boasted one of the best left-backs on the planet. Marcelo excelled on both sides of the field, but when the Brazilian got older, Los Blancos, unlike other positions on the left flank, did not make a proper rotation. Even before they won the Champions League some nine months ago, it was clear that Ferland Mendy was by far the weakest point in the team, that he was not a player of Real Madrid’s level.They surely regret at the Santiago Bernabeu that in the same transfer window when Mendy arrived from Lyon for 48,000,000 euros, Theo Hernandez was sent to AC Milan for only 22,800,000 euros. They regret it because Theo grew into one of the two, three best and most valuable left-backs on the planet.##NAJAVA_MECA_7023521##That mistake is behind Real, who focused on new players, but in a way also on some of their former members. Namely, the Madrid giants have already completed the transfer of Fran Garcia from Rayo Vallecano. The 23-year-old is a child of the club, he grew up with the younger categories of Blancos and Real Madrid Castilla. He was sold to the Vallecas team last summer for €2,000,000, but the Royal Club, as they usually do, included a clause in the contract that allows them to bring him back for a certain price.The European and world champion activated that clause. It is set at €10,000,000, but Real will only pay €5,000,000 as they have inserted another ingenious contract clause. According to it, they are entitled to 50 percent of the money from the next sale. And since they are the buyer, five out of the ten million euros paid is returned to their own pocket.Garcia may not be a flashy buy, but the possibility of him establishing himself in the first team in the future should not be written off lightly. For the second season, he has been playing regularly and consistently in Primera Division, in which he has made 55 appearances, and Real would certainly not bring him back if they did not hope to repeat history as in the case of Dani Carvajal.Real Madrid won’t give the title away without a fight – Elche concede four at BernabeuA decade ago, Carvajal paved his way to the title of Real’s discreet hero and club legend (354 appearances, five Champions League trophies, five-time world champion, three-time Spanish champion…). He also played in the younger categories of the giants from Madrid, but he had to take a secondary route to the first team. In 2012, Real sold him to Bayer Leverkusen for 5,000,000 euros, and the following summer, after he exploded in the Bundesliga, they returned him for 6,500,000 euros.Fran Garcia will sign a five-year contract with Real in four and a half months. A chance will certainly open up for him next to Ferland Mendy at some point, and it is up to him whether he will seize it and follow in Dani Carvajal’s footsteps.❗️| Les joueurs qui font le plus progresser le jeu en Europe:1 – Vinicius Jr 🇧🇷 ✅2 – Fran Garcia 🇪🇸 🔙 ✅👀 Le futur côté gauche du Real Madrid…🥵#RealMadrid pic.twitter.com/mJTbHXY1iU— RMadrid actu 🇫🇷 (@RMadrid_actu) February 16, 2023
