Isco goes up against his Real Madrid team. Can he bring down his former club?

Isco won everything he could at Real Madrid. He also won the Golden Boy award for the best young player. But then his career faded and he was written off by everyone. But now he’s back and today he’ll play against his former club for the first time.

He’s a typical Spaniard. A player who has the ball glued to his foot and entertains millions of spectators around the world. That’s why Real Madrid bought him from Málaga for €30 million in 2013, as a fresh winner of the Golden Boy poll.

At Real Madrid, Isco has gradually become an important player, starting in the starting line-up in two Champions League finals, giving him priority over Gareth Bale.

Zinedine Zidane even rebuilt the formation for him, switching from the classic 4-3-3 to a 4-4-2 diamond to accommodate Isco. He was backed up by the trio Casemiro – Kroos – Modric, giving the technical midfielder complete freedom in the attacking half of the pitch. And in order to have someone to serve his passes to, the duo Ronaldo – Benzema were waiting in the whitewash.

With this line-up, Los Blancos managed to dominate the Champions League three times in a row. But then Isco’s career began to fade. And that’s exactly when Santiago Solari took over Real. He had a great dislike for the ball wizard.

He virtually ignored Isco, even though he was one of the important players who regularly featured in the starting line-up. He was not even nominated for the first game, then played only 34 minutes, only 17 against Plzen in the Champions League and even stayed on the bench with Celta Vigo.

From October, when Solari took over the team, until the end of January, he put Isco in the starting line-up only twice. Not once in the first month. In total, he gave him only 410 minutes and was only 20th in the team in this statistic.

Isco departure to Andalusia

When the troubles with Solari ended and Zidane returned, Isco was back in form and in the starting lineup. But then came the covid. “I felt I was back, but the pandemic came and after that I stopped playing. But that was my fault,” Isco explained to MARCA newspaper.

“It was an uncertain moment, we didn’t know when to start playing and I slowed down. I didn’t train at home like I should have. And when you slack off in football, it shows. And I paid the price,” reveals the Benalmadena native.

Despite Sevilla and a nine-month break without football, he made it to Betis in the summer, where he came alive again. For nine months Isco had not played football and was practically a write-off. No one believed he could return to elite football. But the 31-year-old signed at Betis and is once again ruling La Liga. He has already won the player of the match award 9 times out of 14 games and is putting in great performances. How will he turn out on Saturday against his former club?

Source: Golazo, Real Betis