Real Madrid legend Raúl leads the B-team to promotion and is about to take over the A-team. What makes him special?

Raúl and Real Madrid are two connected vessels. “El Capitano” returned to his beloved club after the end of his career and is currently coaching the B-team that is leading to promotion. But everyone at the Valdebebas training centre knows that Raúl is also preparing himself to take over the A-team.

If by chance Carlo Ancelotti ends up on the Real Madrid bench, all sorts of names will start running through the media as to who could take over the Madrid club. But most likely none of this will be true, as president Florentino Pérez already has a replacement ready.

In the youth categories, he has bought Raúl, who is the subject of much praise. The legendary Real Madrid striker is following in the footsteps of Zinedine Zidane, who also started at Real Madrid’s Castilla, then took over the A-team and won the Champions League three times in a row with them.

Raúl has been given the goal of dragging the B-team into the second league, which would have great benefits for the club. He could then recall talented youngsters from all over the world and let them grow in the second league before his own eyes, without having to send them out on loan.

The 45-year-old coach has done a great job so far. After Sunday’s 2-0 win, Castilla moved up to the top of the third league, which would mean direct promotion.

“Raúl takes 17-year-old boys and after six months he returns them to you as men. He takes Miguel Guttierez and makes him a man. Same with Antonio and Marvin. He has great demands on them and they adapt to it,” Jorge Valdano, a former Real Madrid player, described Raúl’s work a few years ago.

Moral principles and values of the club

Raúl has received a lot of praise from Valdebebas. And not only for the performance and results of his charges, but above all for the fact that he also takes great care in educating the youngsters.

When you’re 20 years old, playing for Real Madrid, earning hundreds of thousands a month, it can easily go to your head. But that’s what Raúl is trying to avoid, as he is a Real alumnus himself and knows well that playing at Castilla doesn’t mean you are a pro.

So when he joined, he started instilling the moral principles and values of the club into the players. He banned the players from wearing big headphones, luxury bags, backpacks and handbags of Louis Vuitton, Guci and the like. Also unnecessary luxury jewellery.

Castilla plays in the third league, where the players are often semi-professional. So Raúl finds it disrespectful for players to arrive at their stadium with one item more expensive than the entire salary of the opposing team.

At the same time, he demands total discipline from the players. It prohibits talking back to coaches and also complaining about the referee’s decision. After every match, Castilla players must come up to the referee and thank him, as well as shake the hand of the opponent. He once punished a couple of players who refused to shake hands with an opponent after a heated match with Navalcarnero.

“It is extremely difficult to transmit the values of the club to youngsters these days, but Raúl manages it. Last year they won in Navalcarnero in the last minute and one player made a nasty gesture towards the home fans’ stand.

The Navalcanero coach said to me. He told them that with a bit of luck they could play for Navalcarnero in a few years,’ Valdano says.

Source: MARCA, Twitter