BY IBRAHIM ABDULHAMID, AUGUST 21, 2022 | 10:32 AM
Casemiro bids his farewell to Real Madrid on Friday, after nine-and-half years in the club.
He moved to Manchester United in a £70 million deal.
His career in Los Blancos will be a tale told for generations to come; not so much for the 336 appearances, not the 31 goals or 29 assists. Of course, not even for the 18 trophies in his name, of which five are UEFA Champions Leagues titles.
He would certainly be remembered for the trident he, Toni Kroos and Luka Modric had built at the center of the club’s squad, causing Carlo Ancelloti, their coach, to recently describe them as the Bermuda Triangle.
With his leaving, it is a good bye to the display of spectacular talent and midfielder-ship fans are used to, many of whom are asking whether the club had thought the decision of letting him go through.
Their skepticism is rooted in the history of woes experienced at the No. 4 spot in the club.
A nearly ten-year of struggle to get a befitting central midfielder was ended with the purchase of Xavi Alonso in 2009 after many failed trials. Graversen, Gago, Lassana Diara and a long list of other club record flops, whose names nobody is willing to remember.
After the club got rid of Claude Makelele in 2003, just three years of his stint, the Spanish giants struggled for a decade to replace him, until the arrival of Alonso, with whom the club coveted its long-awaited La Decima.
As if the club had not learnt its lesson, Alonso was let off in 2014, but with Kroos and Casemiro already in, the spot was replaced without much struggle.
With Casemiro’s transition into the senior squad in 2014, it became as though a match made in heaven, making fans to forgot how sad the tales about the spot used to be.
Now with the departure of another club legend, the question in the mind of Madridistas is about whether any of Tchoumoni, Camavinga or Velverde can adequately fill Casemiro’s vacuum in the squad.
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10 November 2021
