Real Madrid's Brazilian factory
With Alan, Madrid have now signed nine Brazilians since 2012: Casemiro, Willian José, Pablo Teixeira, Lucas Silva, Abner, Augusto, Vinicius Junior and Rodrigo.
Real Madrid are putting their future, in part, in the hands of Brazil. In Concha Espina they see the South American country as an ideal source for talent and this has been proved further with the recent announcement that Alan will be joining from Palmeiras, the ninth Brazilian since 2012.
More reading: Alan, Vinicius... Real's new policy of 'pre-emptive signings'
Real Madrid's Brazilian buys
The majority of these players, Lucas Silva being the exception, have signed to start life in Los Blancos' academy and Alan joins the list that started with midfielder Casemiro in the 2012/13 season who moved for a fee of 5.3 million euros. Following that transfer came William José in 2013/14, now playing at Real Sociedad, Pablo Teixeira (2013-14, at Paranaense), Abner (2014-15, on a free transfer), and Augusto in 2016, for 3 million euros.
Real Madrid's Brazilian signings since 2012-13.
| Arrival | Football | Team signed from | Cost | Current club |
| Dec-2013 | Casemiro | Sao Paulo | €6M | Real Madrid |
| 2013-14 | Willian José | Maldonado | Loan | Real Sociedad |
| 2013-14 | Pablo Teixeira | Atl. Paranaense | Loan | Atl. Paranaense |
| 2014-15 | Lucas Silva | Cruzeiro | €13M | Cruzeiro (cedido) |
| 2014-15 | Abner | Coritiba | Free | Estoril (cedido) |
| 2017-18 | Augusto Galván | Sao Paulo | €3M | Juvenil A |
| 2017-18 | Vinicius Jr. | Flamengo | €45M | Flamengo (cedido) |
| 2017-18 | Rodrigo | Palmeiras | €3M | Palmeiras (cedido) |
Vinicius Junior demonstrated further the club's intention in this market signing earlier in 2017 for a massive 45 million euros and then came Rodrigo Rodrigues for 3 million euros. La Fábrica, Real Madrid's famed youth academy, is playing to the sound of the samba and Alan knows the tune.
Early movement, future advantage
All this activity means that the current Spanish and European champions have paid a total of 72.3 million euros with part of the objective to steal a march on some of the big buyers in the Premier League. At the helm of this strategy is Juni Calafat, the head of transfer activity outside of Spain and specialist in South American football. By getting in early, Madrid do their negotiation before the young playes have fully appeared on the European radar.
