Despite being one of the biggest clubs in the world, and having a very elaborate and successful youth development system of their own, it looks like officials at Real Madrid are very impressed with the youth players at their cross-town rival club, Atletico Madrid.
Only in the last season, the Merengues incorporated five players from the Mattress Makers’ ranks into their own youth academy, and everything indicates that this is also going to be the case once again this summer.
In fact, according to Mundo Deportivo, Los Blancos are very close to signing Sergio Mestre, the goalkeeper of the Atletico Madrid B team, who is going to run out of his contract at the end of the season, and has no plans of renewing.
Furthermore, Mestre is not the only player that Real Madrid can snatch from the Colchoneros. The Merengues are preparing to launch an offensive for as many as 12 Atletico Madrid players, ranging from the Alevin to the Juvenile categories.
One can understand why Mestre is not too keen to extend his stay at Atletico, as he has had almost no minutes on the pitch, and was in the shadows of the other goalkeeper in his team, Esquivel.
Even with the appointment of Fernando Torres as the team’s coach, Mestre understands that Esquivel is going to be the starting goalkeeper, and thus has decided to leave the club.
However, no one was expecting him to join Real Madrid as his next club, especially as he had spent the last 10 years at Atletico. He is yet to sign a contract with the Merengues, but it is almost certain that he will be a part of the Real Madrid C team in the Tercera Federación next season, a team a tier below Atletico Madrid B in which he belonged up to now.
Two other players in which Real Madrid are interested are Ruben Gomez and Sergio Esteban, the former from Cadete and the latter from Juvenil B, while they are also dreaming of getting Adrian Nino and Salim El Jebari.
Meanwhile, Ateltico have been able to secure one of the brightest gems in their academy, Taufik Seidou, while Brayan de la Cruz has also committed to staying with the Mattress Makers till 2027.
