Dani Ceballos played one minute in the final that Real Madrid beat Liverpool in Paris, the last Champions League won by the whites. And he did it after replacing Luka Modric. That is the best summary of his career as a white player. A footballer called to lead the team as a natural replacement for the Croatian, but who his bad luck and mental fragility have ended up turning into a residual player in a squad in which he has never had a relevant weight.
This year, in addition, physical problems have accumulated, which have caused him to barely accumulate 150 minutes so far this season. His first start was this Wednesday, against Naples, given the epidemic of casualties that Carlo Ancelotti has. 57 minutes marked the limit of his first ownership with Real Madrid since the end of last season. For one thing or another, he never quite establishes himself.
Six years waiting for his “moment”
Ceballos landed at the Santiago Bernabéu on July 20, 2017, speaking to Florentino Pérez some words that sounded like a premonition: “Fear of playing for Madrid? You have to be afraid of other things, not of being here. My time will come and I’m going to take advantage of it. I want to face the challenge of playing for the best team in the world and I come with my clear objective.” His moment never came. He began by inheriting a cursed number, number 24, the same one that an unfortunate Asier Illarramendi, who returned to San Sebastián through the back door after failing in the task of becoming the new Xabi Alonso. The Sevillian signed for six seasons, arriving from Betis for 16.5 million euros.
Zinedine Zidane did not count on him in his first season, in which he only participated in seven games. It’s more, Zizou It turned Ceballos into an element of friction with the club and Florentino Pérez’s personal transfer policy. Faced with this scenario, the player decided to pack his bags and find a life in another team where he could demonstrate his talent. Unai Emery opened the doors of Arsenal for him, where he won the FA Cup, played 77 games in two seasons and became an important player.
However, His driving football did not seduce coach Luis Enrique, who left him out of the Euro Cup. Who did count on him for the Tokyo Olympics, that were held in 2021 and not in 2020 due to the pandemic, was Luis de la Fuente. Ceballos went there to win an Olympic medal. And he achieved it, although again bad luck prevented him from doing so while taking center stage. In Tokyo he suffered a sprained ankle in the first game after a tough tackle by the Egyptian Mohamed Taher. Despite this, Ceballos decided to stay in the Olympics and the sprain ended up becoming a torn ligament and the anterior peroneal-talar and peroneal-calcaneus ligaments. injury that was discovered in Madrid’s preseason, after an MRI in August 2021. Dani did not play again until early 2022. And in that season he was only able to earn the position of a booster for an Ancelotti who did like his soccer. The minute in the final in Paris replacing Modric was the last he played that season.
Neither Luis Enrique nor De la Fuente
Luis Enrique once again left him off the list for the World Cup in Qatar, something that the Sevillian already knew about. However, upon returning from the World Cup, the Asturian was fired and the continued commitment to De la Fuente made him regain his enthusiasm for returning to the national team. But Everything went wrong again with a silly clash with the Barça player Gavi in a classic in which both were singled out.
The coach had to force a meeting to relax the atmosphere between the two, town neighbors in Seville but irreconcilable enemies in the countryside. Ceballos’ last call-up with the senior team took place in Glasgow, in the only defeat for Luis de la Fuente’s Spain and since then Dani has not been called up again. Nowadays he is off the coach’s radar and has no real chance of making the roster for next summer’s Euro Cup in Germany.
Last summer there was a lot of talk about his possible departure from Real Madrid. Betis did everything they could to get him back, but his signing was unaffordable for the green and white. And the offers he had from Italy and England did not convince him after his life experience in London.. So he finally decided to renew with the whites until 2027. Ceballos, aware that he had the complicity of Carlo Ancelotti in the white team, opted to focus on trying to gain weight in Madrid in the face of the logical weight loss of a Modric who, at his 37 years old was signing his last season at the Bernabéu. Carletto has always held him in esteem because he considers him “a different footballer”, a ‘talentine’ of those that are not abundant in football.
But once again injuries crossed his path. On July 13, in the squad’s third training session in Madrid, he suffered a puncture and was diagnosed with an injury to the distal tendon of the right biceps femoris muscle. Which meant that he missed the tour of the United States, staying in Madrid to recover. He reappeared at the end of September, played four games off the bench and was injured again.
Last Sunday he played 21 minutes against Cádiz and the plague of injuries suffered by Madrid, with Tchouaméni, Camavinga and Modric injured in midfield, have opened the door to another start in the Champions League years later. The match against Naples brought Ceballos back into focus, something that Ancelotti has tenaciously pursued because he is a player of his liking that he wants to get back. This Saturday, against Granada (6:30 p.m.) he will have a new opportunity.
2023-12-02 08:18:33
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