The Under-19s Return to Work

The continuation of the Champions League was important for more than team at Real Madrid... The club’s under 19 side have started preparing for the competition’s younger sibling, the UEFA Youth League. The UYL was established for academy sides of Champions League teams. Before lock-down hit, Juvenil A were comfortably through to the round of 16 after topping their group under the guidance of manager Dani Poyatos. They overcame PSG, Galatasary and Club Brugge along the way. The team was to face Juventus at this stage, but the season was then postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, Poyatos was offered the managerial position at Greek side Panathinaikos. With the Castilla job seemingly being off of the table at Real Madrid, this senior role looked too good to turn down for Dani - so he took it! That left the under-19s with no manager ahead of their return for the UYL. With so few games left for the team, it would be a big task for a new manager to step in at such an important time. Enter Raúl...

The Castilla coach and his assistant Alberto Garrido have agreed to take charge of the under 19s for their remaining UYL fixtures. This is ideal, as Castilla’s season was cancelled - and Raúl now has the opportunity to witness his talent pool for next year firsthand. Current Castilla players that are young enough will be able to get a run out, too. Players such as Ivan Morante, Juan Latasa and Sergio Arribas will need to impress here to guarantee a space on next year’s B team roster. During the icon’s first training session yesterday, Castilla players Miguel Baeza, Marvin Park, Antonio Blanco, Pablo Rodríguez were all involved amongst others. This is a competition that Real Madrid are yet to conquer, so directing full focus towards it can only be beneficial. Cobwebs are beginning to overthrow the CastillaCorner office, so reporting on the Youth League will become the gang’s main focus. The Juventus game will take place on the 16th of August in Switzerland. Before anyone, gets their hopes up - these games can really swing in any direction and are almost impossible to predict. A good example of this being that both the mighty PSG and Galatasary were dumped out of Madrid’s group by second placed Club Brugge. The only Youth League game I have watched live was a 6-3 win for Juvenil A over PSG in a very messy affair... Here’s to hoping that CastillaCorners UEFA Youth League coverage won’t be just a onetime thing...