Inventing money where there is none – and, above all, football, by turning the youngest talents into real value. Take notes from what Real Madrid have managed to do with one of the youngsters from their academy. To be clear, this is not the usual prodigy, the kind who attracts scouts from around the world throughout his adolescence and leaves his peers trailing in his wake. We are talking about an ordinary boy. Good enough to wear the prestigious Blancos shirt from a very young age, certainly, but breaking through such fierce competition is another matter altogether. For Jacobo Ortega, the 2006-born forward, it was anything but easy. For a long time, he played for Real Madrid C in Segunda Federación – roughly the equivalent of Serie D in Italy. Only in recent months did he earn some playing time with Castilla, still just one step higher. And yet today, Real are selling him for €10 million. Boom. According to Spanish newspaper AS, Ortega is heading to Strasbourg in Ligue 1, sealing a historic transfer-market milestone. Never before had Real Madrid earned so much from the sale of an academy product without giving him a first-team debut. Jacobo is the player behind the record – in this case, a deal that includes, alongside the €10 million fee, a buy-back clause in Real’s favour and a 70 per cent share of any future transfer fee. The formula, in other words, remains the same: Real always sell, but never quite let go, retaining a degree of control over their own talents should they blossom beyond expectations. The same happened with Gonzalo Garcia and Cesar Palacios, who joined Fulham in this transfer window under similar terms.
What makes it even more remarkable is that Ortega was never even formally registered with Castilla: in every sense, he was a C-team player who proved good enough and ready to make the most of the opportunity that came his way. Since March, the centre-forward has scored six goals and provided two assists while stepping up to Castilla in Primera Federación, and he also impressed in the Youth League. That return attracted the attention of several European clubs, not least because of the player’s profile: an old-school goalscorer, physical and best suited to balls played into space – an unusual profile for a national team that has just been crowned world champions with the false-nine pairing of Oyarzabal and Ferran Torres.
In the end, Strasbourg won the race, a destination that also appealed to the player given the well-known connection between the Alsatian club and Chelsea. If Ortega makes the most of his chances in Ligue 1, the Premier League could one day beckon too. In other words, the big time. That, naturally, is what Real Madrid are hoping for as well, both for the player and for their own pockets: their recent income from the sale of academy prospects, from Gonzalo to Nico Paz, has now reached €199 million. To put that figure into perspective, the Blancos have effectively paid for Bellingham and Vinicius Junior with it. And still have some change left over. Still wondering why they are the most successful club in the world?