Rodrygo staying at Real Madrid

Rodrygo will stay at Real Madrid this season, AS have learned. The club have no intention of letting the Brazilian leave like his teammate Kubo did just last week when he joined Mallorca on loan for a year. This loan deal led to a number of enquiries over Rodrygo including one from Espanyol; all of which recieved a negative response.

Real Madrid will repeat the formula that worked so well with Vinicius last season. He will start with Castilla in an initial adaptation period, but will belong to the first team squad. The idea is that when Zidane does not need him for the first team, he will drop back to play with Castilla because at his age, 18, he needs minutes.

Kubo's departure leave Castilla a lot weaker than they looked a couple of weeks ago. He had been planning to have have both players this season. With the Brazilian, however, the new reserves manager will have a luxury signing every time Zidane does not count on him.

The exit of the Japanese youngster also clears up a problem with foreign players quota. Currently, the three places have been filled by Militao, Valverde and Vinicius occupy but Valverde is close to getting his Spanish passport and then there will be an extra slot for Rodrygo to start to enter squads.