Real Madrid look as if they are on the hunt for a new left-back for next summer, with significant links to Alphonso Davies of Bayern Munich arising in recent months.
It appears as if Ferland Mendy’s time at the club is up, and while Fran Garcia was signed this summer, it looks as if he is set to be a rotational option for Carlo Ancelotti, with Eduardo Camavinga or Mendy being trusted ahead of Garcia since their derby defeat to Atletico Madrid.
One of Garcia’s former teammates, Alvaro Garcia of Rayo Vallecano, believes he has identified the main reason for the left-back’s struggles at the Santiago Bernabeu so far.
“How else should I feel? It’s Madrid! His problem is his personality. He is too good. Maybe to be there you have to bring out the nastiness more. If you have the ball, make the play, don’t leave it to anyone. He has to have that personality because he can do it.”
The two shared the left-flank at Rayo for three seasons, becoming one of the most formidable wide partnerships in La Liga.
“In his situation situation I don’t know what I would do, that’s also true. But he’s going to make it work, for sure, because he arrives first and leaves last in the gym. He has to behave as if he were at Rayo and he will succeed,” Garcia told JotDown Sport, via Diario AS.
Real Madrid’s Garcia is also a hardy customer, as he demonstrated two seasons ago in the Copa del Rey.
“That was incredible. It is harder for him than for anyone to be injured. He can’t stand it. I remember the year we reached the semifinals of the Cup. His abductors were destroyed and there was no one to stop him until they told him: ‘Fran, you have to stop to try to reach the semis.’ But until the first leg of the semi-finals, he endured a month being injured and continued playing, he didn’t care. He endured the pain. I don’t know how he did it. But it’s as I tell you.”
“We get along well. Very well. In fact, we are still talking. For me, Fran is that type of person who deserves everything good that happens to him. You cannot be more humble despite the fact he came from the Madrid youth team. And that is to his honour.”
At 24 years of age, Fran Garcia has time to find his footing at Los Blancos, and no doubt will be learning plenty in his first few months back at the Bernabeu. Having started the opening games under Ancelotti, he now has an opportunity to show just as much with Mendy injured, and Camavinga likely to push back into midfield following an injury to Aurelien Tchouameni.
