Real Madrid’s Pre-season: Everything You Need To Know

Real Madrid are well into the planning of a new season with a new manager. Julen Lopetegui agreed with Zinedine Zidane’s original plan of starting the pre-season training in Madrid instead of Montreal, as Los Blancos did in 2016. This is because of there are a lot of players that won’t meet up for pre-season at the beginning, because of the on-going FIFA World Cup.

The players that will meet up in Madrid for pre-season in the middle of July are Kiko Casilla, Luca Zidane, Theo Hernández, Marcos Llorente, Dani Ceballos, Borja Mayoral, Karim Benzema and Gareth Bale. These are the players that have not participated in this summer’s World Cup, and they have been on holiday since Real Madrid’s victory in the Champions League final against Liverpool.

Jesús Vallejo has not played in Russia for Spain, but he was one of a few under-21 players that were brought in to train with the squad. Vallejo travelled with La Roja to Russia, but he went home after Spain’s first game and has been on holiday since. There is perhaps a possibility that Vallejo will meet up along with the other non-World Cup players, but no one knows for certain, except Julen Lopetegui.

Photo by Gonzalo Arroyo Moreno/Getty Images

After what probably will be two weeks of hard training in Madrid, Los Blancos will travel to Mexico. While visiting Mexico for the first time in 28 years, Real Madrid will play Mexican side Puebla on the 29th of July. The match will take place at Estadio Cuauhtémoc, which has a capacity of around 50, 000. After the match against Puebla; Real Madrid will travel to the US to participate in the International Champions Cup (ICC).

In the ICC, Real Madrid will play three games against three big European sides. On the first of August, we’ll see a replay of the UEFA Super Cup from this past season, when Real Madrid takes on Manchester United in Miami, at the Hard Rock Stadium where Real Madrid met Barcelona last summer.

Photo by Mike Ehrmann/Getty Images

After the showdown against Manchester United, Real Madrid will meet Juventus. The game against ‘the old lady’ will take place at FedExField in Washington on the fifth of August. Real Madrid will finish off their US tour when they meet AS Roma at the MetLife Stadium in New Jersey on the eighth of August. After this, Real Madrid will travel home to Madrid to prepare for the season’s first official match, when they meet Atlético Madrid in the UEFA Super Cup final in Tallinn.

Pre-season matches summer 2018:

• Puebla - Real Madrid/Estadio Cuauhtémoc, Puebla (29th of July - 02:00 CEST)
• Manchester United - Real Madrid/Hard Rock Stadium, Miami (1st of August - 02:00 CEST)
• Real Madrid - Juventus/FedExField, Washington (5th of August - 00:00 CEST)
• Real Madrid - Roma/MetLife Stadium, New Jersey (8th of August - 02:00 CEST)