End of the Galacticos? Real Madrid are finding a new identity

Real Madrid’s transfer business so far this summer indicates a new direction for the club.

Besides a few close friends and family, Andriy Lunin didn’t have many people to wave to in the stands. As is customary for new Real Madrid signings, the Ukrainian goalkeeper was given a public reception after putting pen to paper on a €8.5 million move from Zorya Luhansk. With the turnstiles open, though, few turned up.

This was perhaps to be expected. Lunin, after all, is a relative unknown. His reception was in stark contrast to the ticker-tape welcomes offered to the likes of Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo in years gone by. Close to 70,000 fans turned up to see Ronaldo unveiled as a Real player back in the summer of 2009. But that was a different time for the Spanish giants.

Ronaldo is now gone. He’s a Juventus player after making the most remarkable move in a madcap summer in the European transfer market. Speculation is now focused on who Real Madrid could bring in to replace their greatest ever goalscorer. Edinson Cavani, Eden Hazard, Kylian Mbappe, Neymar and Robert Lewandowski, among others, have been linked, but with every passing day it seems less and less likely a new Galactico will arrive.

We shouldn’t be so surprised by this. Real Madrid are a team finding a new identity. They’re leaving behind the Galacticos approach which has come to define the club over the past two decades or so. There were signs of this last season, but this summer has been a watershed. The days of names like Bale and Ronaldo being paraded in front of thousands of fans are a thing of the past.

Instead, Real Madrid are putting their faith in their scouting system. And their youth academy. Lunin has been signed to provide competition for the number one jersey. Alvaro Odriozola, a 22-year-old full-back, was signed from Real Sociedad after a breakthrough season last term. They’ve splurged £40.5 million on 17-year-old Brazilian Rodrygo. Another teenage Brazilian, Vinicius Junior, also arrived for a similar fee.

This comes after the signing of Theo Hernandez and Dani Ceballos last season, with Marcos Llorente, Achraf Hakimi, Borja Mayoral, Lucas Vazquez, Jesus Vallejo and Marco Asensio all brought through the ranks and into the senior squad in recent years. There’s a distinctly homegrown feel to the Real Madrid team right now and now they have Julen Lopetegui, the former Spain manager, in charge too.

What we should see from Real Madrid next season is a team more comfortable in controlling games. Lopetegui isn’t Pep Guardiola, he won’t demand possession for the sake of possession, but his sides still play with the ball at their feet and in the likes of Toni Kroos and Luka Modric, not to mention Isco and Asensio, he will have players capable of carrying out such instructions.

While Real Madrid have been a team defined by their big names over any discernible philosophy, now Lopetegui is expected to impose a holistic style of play through all ranks of the club. This is something he managed to do successfully over spells as Spain’s U-19, U-20, U-21 and senior coach, imposing an ideology across all levels.

By making such a fundamental change in approach, Real Madrid are reacting to the zeitgeist. The Zidanes y Pavones era, when expensive Galactico signings were paired with domestic supplements, left Real an unbalanced outfit, making sustained success difficult for them. The second Galacticos era was more fruitful, with the likes of Ronaldo, Bale and Karim Benzema leading the club to four Champions League titles in just five years.

But recent inflation in the transfer market means even Real Madrid with all their riches can’t maintain such an expensive ideology. They also had to react to the surprise resignation of Zidane. But by not doing much at all this summer, by not splurging millions on Hazard or Mbappe or Neymar, Real Madrid might have given the clearest indication yet of their new direction.