Unstoppable, these thirty-somethings symbolize the policy of the prestigious Madrid club, which hosts Manchester City in the semi-final first leg of the Champions League on Tuesday.
Medal around his neck, King’s Cup in hand, Karim Benzema joins the podium installed on the lawn of the Olympic stadium in Seville. He raises her in front of his Real Madrid teammates. For the 25th time since wearing that immaculate white jersey, Benzema sees his reflection in a trophy. A statistic that exudes talent and longevity. With Toni Kroos (20 titles) and Luka Modric (23), the Frenchman forms a unique trio. That of the old sages, guardians of the institution, but also of the innkeepers, still performing in the big evenings.
Much like their side in their Champions League-winning campaign last year, Kroos (33), Benzema (35) and Modric (37) are unsinkable. They are again, this season, in the 10 outfield players most used by Carlo Ancelotti. They were all three starters in the two legs of the quarter-final against Chelsea (2-0, 0-2) and will certainly be against Manchester City on Tuesday (9 p.m., broadcast on Canal+ Foot et RMC Sport).
Real and the thirties rule
«They can have good times and bad times, analyzed Ancelotti. It’s normal and it happens to everyone. They are not judged on their age but on what they do. Their way of managing matches is unique. No transfer window can buy that.The question, the one that burns your lips when you see these old scoundrels repeating the efforts, is this: what is their secret?
Much of the answer lies not with them, but with their club. Real Madrid practices a policy that is rare in top-level team sport, and even unique in football. With its elders, Real is as loyal as it is demanding.
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The rule, although tacit, is known in Madrid: if a player is over 30, the club will never extend it for more than a year and without a salary increase. A heresy in football business, the kingdom of players and not of clubs, where none of these millionaires plans to earn less because there is always someone in the world who offers them more. But at Real, it’s like that. And it works.
Playing at Real is a privilege
As brilliant as they are, Modric, Kroos and Benzema are out of contract. Since January, they can contract with another club for next season. But they don’t. Too much respect. “The relationship is healthy and between the club and me, nobody will do bullshit“, explained Kroos last February.
How does Real bring these superstars to heel? By playing on its prestige, the weight of history, the illustrations on the walls of Valdebebas, the club’s training centre. By playing names from Di Stefano to Ronaldo via Raul, Zidane, Figo or Casillas.
In Rennes, when we won a match, we did anything. Here, it is only after the very big victories that the emotions can overflow
Eduardo Camavinga
Real don’t doubt it: they are the biggest club in the world. Playing it is a privilege, winning it is normal. Eduardo Camavinga understood this in the locker room on January 16, 2022, after Real’s coronation in the Spanish Supercup. “In Rennes, when we won a match, we did anything, laughed the Frenchman for the magazine France Football . Here, it is only after the very big victories that the emotions can overflow.»
So everyone wants to stay at Real, even if it means making financial concessions. And the few who are too greedy will never be regretted. Sergio Ramos, legendary Madrid captain, won everything between 2005 and 2021. He left Paris Saint-Germain at the end of his contract, disgusted that Real did not break his tradition for him. “I wanted two more contract years for me and my family“, had defended the Spaniard, 35 years old at the time.
No thirty-somethings recruited in the last ten years
This requirement, in Madrid, is not just in the air. The owners are in competition. Whether Gonzalo Higuain, Alvaro Morata, Mariano Diaz or Chicharito, no center-forward has been able to challenge Benzema’s starting position. In 2019, Real spent €63 million on Luka Jovic, a 21-year-old Serbian prodigy, perceived as the successor to the Frenchman whose decline is already feared. Three years later, Benzema is Ballon d’Or and Jovic replaces at Fiorentina.
Luka Modric, 37 years old, and Eduardo Camavinga, 20 years old. SUSANA VERA
It is this constant pressure that forces the requirement. If they are to have that chance of staying at the Casa Blanca, the alumni must be beyond reproach, on and off the pitch. “We also have to think about the day they will stop, look at the future of the club“, underlined Ancelotti last month.
Real paid 31 M€ for Eduardo Camavinga in 2021, and 80 M€ for Aurélien Tchouameni in 2022. The second takes his troubles patiently on the bench. Where some clubs would play him at all costs to justify his price, Real detaches himself from these injunctions.
Modric on track to extend
The most symbolic of this “management of old people” at Real is perhaps this figure revealed by the CIES Football Observatory (International Center for Sports Studies) in October 2022. Over the past ten years, the club merengue have not recruited any player aged 30 or over. It is the only one in this case among the 5 major European championships. If there are grandpas in the team, it’s because they really deserve it, because they have Real Madrid DNA in them.
Against Manchester City, Ancelotti will obviously count on Kroos, Modric and Benzema. “I think they will stayone more season, shared the Italian coach. For the Croatian environment, it is on the right track. Last year, he had extended ten days after the coronation in the Champions League, and after having tamed the middle of… Manchester City in the semi-finals (4-3, 3-1). Bis repeat?
