Marcelo will stay at Real Madrid this season and will end his contract in white, which expires in June 2022. At least, if there is not a last minute change that changes the plan, and it does not seem that there will be. The Brazilian landed in Madrid in January 2007 and when I left the club, he will do so after 15 and a half seasons in white, as one of the most important foreigners in Madrid’s history (the one who has played the most games is Benzema, and it seems that he will follow. being). The club inspected the possibility of releasing Marcelo this summer, but it has been considered impossible and assumes that the ’12’ will be the first captain this season, after the departure of Ramos.
This was confirmed by Florentino Pérez in his interview in Onda Cero’s ‘El Transistor’: “Yes, he will continue to be the captain. He has earned it. I love you all very much. It is difficult to find a left back like Marcelo. Together with his predecessor (Roberto Carlos) I think they are the two best in his position that there has been in his history. You can only give him compliments. ” Thus, the left back will be occupied again by Mendy, the owner so far (it remains to be seen what Ancelotti thinks) and Marcelo, the replacement.
Madrid is now on a clear mission: to lighten the workforce and the wage bill to clean up the still battered white accounts, a symptom of the coronavirus crisis and its effects on the world of football, and incidentally to make room for Kylian Mbappé, that if he comes he will do so with a significant salary and he needs a space to fit him in beforehand. At that point, Marcelo’s departure had an important weight: the Brazilian earns eight million net per season, that is, 16 gross, a large expense for a player who last year he barely played 1,337 minutes; the previous one had not reached the 2,000 mark either.
Ancelotti and Miguel Gutiérrez
But that voluminous salary is just the problem, there are no suitors for Marcelo at that price and Madrid assume that he will stay in the team a final season, in which they expect me to act as captain when the turbulent times come. The Brazilian has been working for a long time with Adolfo Madrid, a highly reputable physical trainer, trying to regain his best level, since age is not yet an excuse (he has just turned 33). And Ancelotti, with whom he had great harmony in the first stage of the Italian, will want to recover that version of Marcelo to encourage competition on the left side and benefit the whole.
The question is what will happen to Miguel Gutiérrez, for whom the club planned to give him a record in the first team as an alternative to Mendy, counting on that Marcelo could go out. With the Brazilian in the squad, the gap for the youth squad closes and at that point it is likely that he will be loaned out to a First team (suitors will not be lacking) to return in 2022 to inherit Marcelo’s place. There is also the option that Ancelotti contemplates using the Brazilian as an interior, a position in which he already played in the past (especially with Juande Ramos), which would change the panorama. The technician needs to give his opinion for the chips to start moving.