Ismaila Diagne was one of the names of the party. The center, a starter in the ranks of Real Madrid, became the youngest player to participate in a Clásico. He did it at 16 years, nine months and nine days, surpassing a record that was held by Luka Doncic, who in 2015 played a match against Barcelona being 19 days older than the current Madrid center.
Chus Mateo praised the great work of his player, who had nine points, eight rebounds and a PIR of 16. His performance, starting from the start, was sensational with four points and seven rebounds, five of them offensive, in the first five minutes. “I didn’t know I was 16 years old. I’m serious. Now that you tell me I’m happier,” said the Madrid coach in the press conference after the Classic.
“It’s an anecdote, but I’m happy above all because the boy works well and this is a reward for the work that the young people are doing. We want to give meaning and continuity to a quarry that we have. Giving meaning to the quarry is only done like this, I have always thought about it like that. The quarry has no meaning if people don’t come out. We are very happy that it turned out well. If Chus Mateo had turned out badly, he would be crazy for having brought out a 16-year-old kid,” said the coach.
Mateo once again demonstrated his determined commitment to the youth team. Last year, Eli John Ndiaye had a great defensive role in the Euroleague series against Partizan. A week ago, Hugo González excelled against Casademont Zaragoza. Now Diagne shows his capabilities. “The good ones step hard. It’s easy to put good players in. If they play well, they play, and if they don’t do so well, they won’t play. That’s what will make us stretch the rotation, the fact that they give the level. The day If they don’t give it, they won’t play,” the coach acknowledged.
Regarding the victory in the second Clásico of the season, Mateo considered that they had played “with a lot of heart, with a lot of soul, with a lot of desire to win, with a lot of impetus. We still lack a little more discipline at times but sometimes this type of “You win games like that, with your heart. It hasn’t been brilliant.”
This Monday, Walter Tavares, absent for the second game due to a respiratory infection, will undergo new tests: “He was in the hospital for a few days and is starting to feel fine. We have to be careful. We don’t want him to take risks. We are in the first part of the regular League and we have not started the Euroleague. Gabriel Deck or Carlos Alocén are not there either. We will try to make the absences noticeable as little as possible.”
2023-10-01 20:40:10
#didnt #Diagne
