Atletico Madrid’s Theo Hernandez, on loan at Alaves, underwent a medical with Real Madrid on Monday ahead of a summer switch to Santiago Bernabeu.
Hernandez would be Real Madrid’s first new signing for 2017-18 winning the race against Barcelona and some other top teams around Europe who were interested in his service. The player according Goal underwent a medical with Los Blancos on Monday ahead of summer switch to the Santiago Bernabeu.
Theo has been on loan all season at Alaves and it is there that the 19-year-old has come of age with some impressive performances in the Basque Country, playing a key part in the side’s success in La Liga and also their run to the final of the Copa del Rey.
Very fast, full of strength and excellent technique Hernendez showed by blasting home a superb striker against Athletic Club from the edge of the box at the weekend, it is remarkable to consider he is still only 19 but one who is only going to get better and better.
In hindsight, Atletico Madrid will wish he had stayed with them instead of going out on load, but he was upset at the lack of playing time that comes his way with the Rojiblancos prior to his loan move and ultimately, his head was turned by a lucrative offer from Real.
Madrid, of course, already have the world’s best left-back in Marcelo, so the move is still somewhat surprising. However, it has been a problem position for Los Blancos when the Brazilian is unavailable and, with Theo now signed, that will no longer be the case.
Real Madrid is growing stronger in every match that the Los Galaticos manager Zinedine Zidane can call upon world-class players to come in all over the pitch when the first-choice players are being rested. This was the one real exception and that showed as Fabio Coentrao started the game at Granada on Saturday as Marcelo stayed on the bench ahead of the Champions League clash against Atletico on Wednesday.
However, as Marcelo was signed as a teenager and took time to get use to life at Madrid before turning into an undisputed starter at Bernabeu, Theo will have the opportunity to learn and develop similarly under him at Real Madrid. Over a long season and with full experience from top-flights, he should have plenty of opportunities to start as well.
The transfer breaks a so called “gentleman’s agreement” between the two local rivals was supposed to stop the two teams from signing each other’s players and it has been reported in Spain that the reigning European champions will pay €30m in total to keep their rivals happy.
Theo who had also represented France at the Under-20 level was keen seriously willing to leave and had Madrid not made the move, they could have ended up losing him to Barcelona or a European rival side like Bayern Munich.
Real already boast of the strongest squad in all of Europe and two of their objectives for the summer were to bring in back-up options for both Marcelo and Casemiro.
With Theo Hernandez in their ranks, the problems they face when Marcelo is absent on the left-hand side of the defence now look to be a thing of the past and they will hope he can turn into one of the best full-backs around, just like Dani Carvajal has done over on the right.