Thomas Gravesen talks about 2005 move to Real Madrid

Danish midfielder and former Real Madrid player Thomas Gravesen spoke with FourFourTwo about his move from Everton to the Bernabéu back in the winter transfer window of 2005.

“I was in the cinema with my brother when my agent called.” I said to my brother, ‘I’ve got to take this phone call’ and went outside. My agent asked, ‘What do you think about Madrid?’

“I thought it was Atletico Madrid to begin with, so I said, ‘But, I like Everton too’. He said, ‘It’s Real Madrid’. I said, ‘It’s Real Madrid?!”

“Real Madrid needed to be really quick. The move happened so quickly.”

Gravesen’s transfer still remains one of the strangest Real have completed this century. He wasn’t a bad player by any means, but he was played out of position as a defensive midfielder.

He played like an absolute madman most of the time. He even got into a fight during training prior to his transfer to Celtic with Robinho.

There’s also the long-standing rumor that Real actually wanted defensive midfielder Lee Carsley from Everton, but confused the two players because they were both bald. That’s never been actually confirmed, it definitely sounds ridiculous, but former Everton manager David Moyes did suggest this very situation.

He wasn’t the most talented player on the pitch, but he always gave a full effort and that’s probably why he won many fans over in just one season with Real. He wasn’t at Real Madrid long, but he’ll always be Gravesinha.

Valverde finally receives his Spanish nationalization

According to AS, Fede Valverde has finally received Spanish nationalization after a hard-fought, drawn-out saga.

With his newfound nationalization, this also means that one of the three non-EU player spots on the roster is freed up. Like AS points out in their report, this likely means that Real can now call up Rodrygo to the main squad after he returns from injury.

This means that Real can utilize Rodrygo in LaLiga matches and the non-EU spots aren’t as serious of a problem anymore for the club.

Benzema talks about his significance to the ‘BBC’ trio

In an interview with French TV outlet RMC Sport, Karim Benzema was asked about his partnership with Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo in the BBC formation as well as how his role changed from Lyon to Real Madrid.

“You had a rocket [Bale] and a goal scorer [Ronaldo], and then there was me, the piece that made it all work.”

“Here, [Real Madrid], the finisher was Cristiano. I played a different role. I was involved more in the construction of moves and trying to open up spaces. For me, he was the the best goalscorer even if he played on the left. I moved away to open up space and let him score.”

There’s no doubt that Benzema was a huge factor in Real’s attack during the heyday of the BBC as an attacking trio. As he said, he was the one that created open space for Ronaldo to take the majority of the goalscoring opportunities.

Even with seemingly ‘backing off’, Benzema has still managed to score 150 goals for the club and break into the top 6 of all-time goalscoring, just six goals behind Puskás now. There’s absolutely a reason why Benz will be remembered fondly as a great player of the modern era for Real, if not a club legend further down the road.