Madrid (AFP)
A French diamond at Real Madrid ... and it's not Kylian Mbappé!
While the Spanish capital hopes for the prodigy of Paris SG, it is the young Rennes midfielder Eduardo Camavinga who joins the club at the 13 Champions Leagues to continue its meteoric development.
Surprise transfer to the "White House": while the management of the club has been working for a week on the recruitment of Mbappé, whose track has cooled since Monday evening, the arrival of Camavinga has pleasantly surprised the Madrid supporters.
After the missed appointments with Mbappé this week, or in previous years with Paul Pogba, the priority target in the midfield, Camavinga is much more than a consolation prize for Real who, according to Marca, would have paid 31 million euros (+ 9 M bonus) to enroll him for the next six years!
The young French international (3 caps), currently in the France Espoirs team, was closely followed by Zinédine Zidane, who had tried to enlist him last summer ... but the player had preferred to stay in his cocoon for an additional year .
- Tracked by Zidane -
After the departures of Zinédine Zidane, Sergio Ramos and Raphaël Varane this summer, true emblems of the club, Eduardo Camavinga will embody the new Madrid era under the leadership of Carlo Ancelotti.
Rennes midfielder Eduardo Camavinga, during the Ligue 1 home match against Lens, August 8, 2021 at Roazhon Park JEAN-FRANCOIS MONIER AFP / Archives
This is the second summer recruit of the "Merengues", after David Alaba, who arrived free from Bayern Munich.
The jewel of Rennes will have plenty of time to refine his progress with his compatriots Ferland Mendy and Karim Benzema, and will be well surrounded with the iconic trio of Madrid midfielder, Toni Kroos - Luka Modric - Casemiro.
A new blank page opens for the young prodigy with a singular history.
Born into a family of refugees in Angola, Eduardo Camavinga arrived in France at the age of two with his family, who settled in Fougères, north-east of Rennes, in Brittany.
Launched in Ligue 1 by Julien Stéphan in the spring of 2019, when he was only 16 years old, Camavinga seduced the French public with his carelessness, his smile and his science of the game.
It was not until November 2019, at just 17 years old, that the young community was naturalized French.
From the following days, he was called up to the France Espoirs team, and in September 2020, when he was not yet major, he climbed another level.
Youngest Blue for a century, he shines from his first steps, with a sublime goal for his second match, against Ukraine in October 2020, in a friendly.
- "Little Prince" -
For Rennes, who had nicknamed him "the Little Prince of Roazhon Park" from the start, the outcome was inevitable.
The departure of his nugget at Real is directly among the biggest transfers in the history of the club, with those of Ousmane Dembélé to Dortmund in 2016 (35 M EUR) and Ismaïla Sarr to Watford in 2019 (between EUR 30 and 38m with bonus).
Unfortunately, after his first remarkable selection for the France team, Camavinga has lost some of its splendor.
Injuries, opponents warned opposite, a change of agent (to join the powerful Jonathan Barnett) and an inconstant team ... The sparkling Camavinga of the 2019-2020 season only reappeared by flashes last season.
Rennes midfielder Eduardo Camavinga, during the Ligue 1 home match against Montpellier, August 29, 2020 at Roazhon Park DAMIEN MEYER AFP / Archives
Replacing in recent weeks, Camavinga, who came to the end of his contract in the summer of 2022, refused the contract extension proposed by Rennes, which tarnished his reunion with the supporters.
He played his last match in red and black on Sunday in Angers, where he entered the break when Rennes had just been reduced to ten and ended up losing 2-0.
The same stage where he made his professional debut, with a first entry in the 89th minute in April 2019 (3-3), at 16 years, 4 months and 26 days.
"The club has known me now since I was 11, they watched me grow up, they helped me develop in the world of football and it is also thanks to them that I became the man I became. I am today, "wrote the young midfielder on Twitter Tuesday afternoon, to bid farewell to the Breton club.
© 2021 AFP