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Aurélien Tchouaméni currently plays for AS Monaco but is set to join Real Madrid in the near future
Photo:
Matthieu Mirville / IMAGO / ZUMA Wire
Wednesday should belong to the midfield at Real Madrid.
Late in the afternoon, the Champions League winner announced the much-awaited contract extension for Luka Modrić, 36. Only the second chapter didn't go according to the script for the time being.
The commitment of Aurélien Tchouaméni, 22, which is also expected, is still dragging on - the French international is said to have completed the medical check during the most recent international trip to Croatia.
Past and future meet to create a common present: That's roughly the idea.
But where Modrić has always been considered uncomplicated when it comes to contract matters, Real have to dig deep into their pockets for Tchouaméni.
According to media reports, a transfer fee of around one hundred million euros will go to AS Monaco.
That's a lot of money for someone who has so far been so unknown to the general football public that even the Madrid sports media are still struggling with the admittedly difficult name: Tchuameni, Touchameni - there are still a variety of spellings.
In the envisaged employment contract, however, it should be correct.
And if the player then puts his signature, the relief should be enormous.
Revenge for the Mbappé saga
Real's trauma has recently haunted the market again: Paris Saint-Germain just got involved in the deal that the Spaniards want to make to replace Kylian Mbappé's missed commitment.
Real had set aside a three-digit million amount as earnest money for the star striker.
After he then extended in Paris, the resources were free for Tchouaméni.
But like Liverpool before, PSG suddenly showed increased interest.
The Parisians also set the alarm bells ringing in Madrid because PSG had already diverted the then 18-year-old Mbappé from Monaco to Paris in 2017, when Real had already reached an agreement with the club.
With Tchouaméni, everything points to a different ending.
But at least the Parisians have raised the price by several million, if only as revenge for the Mbappé saga.
It's already the second summer of frustration shopping for Real.
In 2021, after a "non" from Paris, Eduardo Camavinga, also a young French midfielder, was hastily signed for a €200 million transfer offer for Mbappé.
Camavinga, 19, didn't play much, but usually convincingly;
still a bit impetuous, but always invigorating.
He was never in the starting XI in the Champions League comebacks at home against Paris, Chelsea and Manchester City, but he played in all eight of Real's goals in those games, coming on once for Modrić and twice for Toni Kroos.
The disadvantages of the old master midfield
Kroos, 32 and with a contract until 2023, Modrić and the Brazilian Casemiro, 30, form an established world-class midfield that belonged firmly in the history books of football even before their fourth joint Champions League victory.
Your game management in the final against Liverpool was a testament to all the combined experience of 98 years.
But they also have disadvantages.
With the old masters in the engine room plus 34-year-old Karim Benzema in front of them, Real cannot press as intensely as is usual in top-flight football today.
The mixture of this European Cup season of catenaccio and epic will not work like this forever.
Relying only on counterattacks with the genius of Benzema and the pace of the young winger Vinícius also does not correspond to the club's understanding as an offensive team.
"It's not very aesthetic to be so low," coach Carlo Ancelotti once admitted during the season.
Tchouaméni, on the other hand, would bring the youth dynamism of Camavinga and Uruguay's Federico Valverde, 23 - the trio are now seen as Real's midfield of the future, leaving the details of the transition in the experienced hands of Ancelotti.
Anyone who knows his soft spot for senators need hardly fear that the three established players Kroos, Modrić and Casemiro will no longer get a playing time.
However, it is conceivable that you will no longer see them together with the usual regularity.
A ball conqueror like N'Golo Kanté
The analysts are already locating Tchouaméni specifically on Casemiro's position in front of the defense.
Some teammates in Monaco called him "TchouaNgolo" because he conquered almost as many balls as N'Golo Kanté.
But the son of Cameroonian parents, who was born in Rouen in northern France, has other qualities.
His technique and variation in the passing game is already better than that of Casemiro.
Above all, the Brazilian is a tactical genius.
Casemiro's instinct for the vulnerable zones in the defensive network, his situational position in the defensive line as a third central defender and his feeling for the duel have made him irreplaceable for years.
Nobody knows the job as well as he does.
Real always only plays with one man in front of the defence.
The double six, in which Tchouaméni played most of the time in Monaco, as recently in the French national team, has always been frowned upon in Madrid.
However, as the sole clearer, a midfielder must be able to multiply, so to speak.
The young Camavinga, who often played central defensively at his former club Rennes, did not succeed in the few rehearsals in Madrid.
And Tchouameni?
Like his compatriot, he was left with the slightly more offensive half-positions of Kroos or Modrić.
Real is still looking for a striker
The German will not lose importance, at least in the middle part of the season, because he has resigned from the national team.
Apart from him, only David Alaba (unqualified) of Real's key players can rest during the Qatar Winter World Cup.
In the new ideal formation, the polyvalent Austrian should give way to the newly signed Antonio Rüdiger from the center of defense and replace the moderately convincing Ferland Mendy at left-back.
If necessary, he could also help out as a six for Casemiro.
At the front, another striker is still being sought, we are talking about the Brazilian Gabriel Jesus, who is in surplus at Manchester City after the purchases of Erling Haaland and Julián Álvarez.
However, one of the three jobs currently occupied by his compatriots Militão, Rodrygo and Vinícius would have to be freed up for non-EU foreigners.
The naturalization of Vinícius falters, however.
Few things are as reliable at Real Madrid these days as victories in the European Cup.
