Eduardo Camavinga, the prodigy who has become “untouchable”

Of the four Frenchmen at Real Madrid, we didn’t expect him to be the most prominent this season. However, Eduardo Camavinga has become a key element at the Merengues. At a time when his club is one step away from the quarter-finals of the Champions League, the French international has the opportunity to affirm a little more the level he has just crossed by scratching a tenure against Liverpool, alongside Luka Modric and Toni Kroos, Wednesday March 15.

If we believe the trend, he has every reason to start the meeting. Since returning from the World Cup, the 20-year-old midfielder has ceased to be an option off the bench and refused to keep the player-of-the-future label, an idea firmly entrenched in an intermittent first season . Used in 40 of the Merengues’ 41 games this season, he only missed the last day of the C1 group stage against Celtic, remaining on the bench during an evening devoid of the slightest stake. Above all, he has started in 17 of Real’s last 20 games.

A course crossed, before others

Carlo Ancelotti is under the spell of his midfielder. “Eduardo is untouchable, like Luka Modric and like Toni Kroos. Wherever he plays, he plays very well”, praised the coach on January 21, before the match against Bilbao in La Liga (2-0). Since his decisive entry into play in the semi-final return of the previous Champions League against Manchester City (3-1), the kid from Fougères has gained confidence, whether it is his own or that given to him by his teammates. “He managed to seize opportunities, like when Aurélien Tchouameni got injured. For me, he is a must among the strong players of Real Madrid”insists Mathieu Le Scornet, the one who had recruited him in Rennes.

The coach, who comes out of an interim with RC Strasbourg, has known the prodigy since he was 10 years old and has a very close relationship with him. No surprise on his side when it’s time to analyze the progress of the one who, at 20, already has four full seasons with the professionals: “Each weapon is important to express himself in this hypercompetitive environment. He knows how to tackle. Technically, he also has this ability to project himself, to be able to eliminate individually and then to finish. He has one left to develop, it’s the consistency at the highest level.”

Not yet blameless, Eduardo Camavinga is still regularly singled out for avoidable errors, as during Real’s last outing on Saturday against Espanyol (3-1). Used in a left-back role to help out, as during the World Cup, he was caught behind Joselu’s opener, because poor trajectory reading. “We saw his match against Tunisia [il avait joué à ce poste pour la première fois et avait souffert dans la défaite des Bleus lors de la dernière Coupe du monde]... Like what, you have to be a specialist in the job”supports Mathieu Le Scornet, not convinced that his first performance on the left side of the defense helped his development as a player.

Growing up in the French team

Since his return from the World Cup, “Cama” has played seven games in this position, Carlo Ancelotti considering him the best option to compensate for the simultaneous absences of Ferland Mendy and David Alaba. If the interested party plays the soldiers in front of the camera, happy to “give it back to the coach” the trust placed in him, the fact of being displaced from his favorite position proves that he is not yet unstoppable in the middle, alongside Kroos, Modric, Tchouameni and Valverde.

Against Liverpool, regardless of the quality of his performance, he should hold his place in Didier Deschamps’ list, which will be revealed on Thursday, for the next two matches of the Blues. For Mathieu Le Scornet, the French international took advantage of the first months of the year to climb the selection hierarchy: “His start to the season is beyond the standards of other midfielders in the France team. Today, who is in front of him? Tchouameni, Rabiot maybe… For me, he passed over Fofana and Guendouzi, that’s for sure.”