Victor Muñoz, 13 minutes on the ground, an eternity in the Madrid locker room
He only played thirteen minutes on the international scene, but Victor Muñoz only needed this short moment to make an impression – not by a goal, nor a decisive pass, but by an attitude and a confidence, slipped almost by accident in an interview, which says a lot about the current climate in Real Madrid. The young winger of La Fabrica, propelled into group A for the Club World Cup, found himself, for a tournament, immersed in a universe which he himself describes as “unreal”.
A silent ascent
While the media attention was robbed on Gonzalo Garcia – another Madrid nugget having punctured the screen during the tournament – Muñoz, he advanced in the shade. Thirteen minutes of play, two races towards the background line, a pressing recovery, and an impeccable attitude. Sufficient to be retained by the staff, but especially by Xabi Alonso, who seems to have made a particular look at him.
“He didn’t promise me anything, but he looked at me as if I was already ready,” said Muñoz half-word at the end of a training in Valdebebas. It was this sentence, pronounced without thinking about it, which sparked a wave of internal questions. Since when has Alonso observing this player? Why do such an apparent proximity when other more experienced young people remain on the sidelines?
The confidence that has changed everything
But it is a much more disturbing passage of the interview that has truly reacted. “He said to me,” Don’t be afraid of failure. He only reveals who you really are. “And after that … he designated the empty bench next to him.”
A harmless sentence? Not for those who read between the lines. Several wardrobe players interpreted it as an invitation to get closer to the team’s strategic nucleus. Others have seen it as a subtle way of preparing the ground for a new hierarchy, where some young people are called upon to take over than expected.
A member of the staff, under anonymity, even confided: “Xabi Alonso has this strange gift to convey very personal messages without ever raising his tone. If he said that to Victor, it is no coincidence. He prepares something.”
A wardrobe that holds her breath
Since this declaration, the atmosphere in Valdebebas has been special. Some executives have, according to our sources, have asked Alonso to clarify its intentions. Others – more lucid – know that modern football no longer leaves room for nostalgia: young people are ready, places are expensive. And Victor Muñoz, discreet but inhabited, could well be the symbol of a generational turning point that no one had anticipated so early.
The question is no longer whether it will play more this season. It is to understand what represents, in the eyes of Alonso, this player who “listens more than he speaks, but seizes everything that we do not say”.
And now ?
Muñoz, he refuses to say more. He politely smiles at the questions, avoids comparisons, seeks neither controversy nor light. But to those who observe him closely, a detail does not deceive: from this tournament, he systematically trains ten more minutes after each session, alone, on the right side of the field number 4 – the same on which Alonso liked to isolate himself when he was still a player …
Coincidence? Maybe. Or maybe not.
