Dani Carvajal will be Real Madrid’s starting right back in 2022/23 but the role of his back-up is up for grabs according to Diario AS. Carlo Ancelotti will have to choose if Vinicius Tobias or Alvaro Odriozola fill that role based on their performance in pre-season.
Both players will travel to the United States with the rest of the Madrid squad and Ancelotti will keep a close eye on both of them. One negative for Vinicius is his status as a non-EU citizen, being Brazilian. He’s applied for dual nationality but as things stand there’s no clear idea as to whether he’ll be successful.
Vinicius was signed from Shakhtar Donetsk in the extraordinary circumstances sparked by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine earlier this year. It meant that clubs could sign players based in either of those two countries outside of the traditional transfer window.
Madrid signed Vinicius on a loan deal until the end of the season with a fixed option to buy of €10m and €10m more in add-ons. Odriozola was signed from Real Sociedad in the summer of 2018 for a fee of €32m but has spent time on loan with Bayern Munich and, last season, Fiorentina. He’s 26 while Vinicius is 18.
