A year and a half after signing for Real Madrid for 60 million euros, Endrick was finally presented this Saturday at the Santiago Bernabéu Stadium as a new Real Madrid player. The young Brazilian footballer was emotional during his speech to the crowd, who chanted his name every time tears interrupted his brief appearance. With his voice breaking, the Brazilian was barely able to say a few words, in which he said he was fulfilling a childhood dream: “I am happy because since I was a child I have always been a Madrid fan and now I am going to play here. This is a dream,” he managed to say before counting to three and asking the Real Madrid fans to proclaim the classic “Hala Madrid.”
During the ceremony, Endrick was accompanied by Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, who highlighted the great qualities of the Brazilian at such a young age. “Your determination and conviction, together with your talent and sacrifice, have led you to fulfil your lifelong dream. You have become one of the rising stars of world football and today, Endrick, your story with the club of your life begins,” said the Madrid president. “The fans represented here will help you until the very last moment of each match, so that you never give up. Welcome to your new home,” he concluded.
Endrick, who only came of age on July 21, will travel to the United States tomorrow to face the preseason with the rest of the squad. It will be on North American soil when the former Palmeiras player will train for the first time under the orders of Carlo Ancelotti. This North American tour will represent the first opportunity he will have to catch the eye of his next coach, in search of minutes for the next season within a squad in which there will be a lot of internal competition. The young attacker, one of the most promising footballers at the moment and who was already important for his former team, will arrive in the Spanish capital to scratch opportunities in a team full of stars. A collection of cards that this summer has also included Kylian Mbappé, presented at the Santiago Bernabéu a couple of weeks ago.
The fight for minutes is a race for endurance at this Real Madrid. Another promising player like Arda Güler (19 years old) knows this well, and his five goals in the last six league games last season do not seem to be enough to make him one of the star players. Given this context, Endrick will have to show the patience and perseverance of a current benchmark like Vinicius Júnior, a Brazilian footballer also signed by Real Madrid at 16 years old and who had to wait for his moment to become one of the star players of the first team.
Real Madrid’s pre-season will have its next stop in Chicago, where the white club will face Milan on August 1. Then, they will face Barcelona on the 4th in New Jersey, in the now traditional pre-season Clasico, to finally face Chelsea, on the 7th in Charlotte. This is before playing the final of the European Super Cup against Atalanta, on August 14, a duel that will officially kick off the 2024/25 season.
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