Medal around his neck, King's Cup in hand, Karim Benzema joins the podium installed on the lawn of the Olympic Stadium in Seville. He lifts it in front of his Real Madrid teammates. For the 25th time since wearing this immaculate white shirt, Benzema sees his reflection in a trophy. A statistic that exudes talent and longevity. With Toni Kroos (20 titles) and Luka Modric (23), the Frenchman forms a unique trio. That of the wise old men, guardians of the institution, but also of the tauliers, still performing in the great evenings.
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Much like their team did in their Champions League winning campaign last year, Kroos (33), Benzema (35) and Modric (37) are unsinkable. They are still, this season, in the 10 outfield players most used by Carlo Ancelotti. They were all three starters in the two legs of the quarter-final against Chelsea (2-0, 0-2) and will certainly be against Manchester City this Tuesday (21h, broadcast on Canal + Foot and RMC Sport).
Real and the rule of thirty-year-olds
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They can have good moments and not so good moments," Ancelotti said. It's normal and it happens to everyone. They are not judged by their age but by what they do. Their way of managing matches is unique. No transfer window can buy that." The question, the one that burns our lips when we see these old scoundrels repeating efforts, is: what is their secret?
A big part of the answer lies not at home, but at their club. Real Madrid practices a policy that is rare in high-level team sport, and even unique in football. With its alumni, Real is as loyal as it is demanding.
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The rule, although tacit, is known in Madrid: if a player is over 30 years old, the club will never extend him for more than a year and without a salary increase. A heresy in the football business, the kingdom of players and not clubs, where none of these millionaires plans to earn less because there is always someone in the world who offers them more. But at Real, that's the way it is. And it works.
Playing at Real is a privilege
As brilliant as they are, Modric, Kroos and Benzema are out of contract. Since January, they can contract with another club for next season. But they don't. Too much respect. "The relationship is healthy and between the club and me, nobody will do," Kroos said last February.
How does Real bring these superstars to heel? By playing on its prestige, the weight of history, the illustrations on the walls of Valdebebas, the club's training center. By playing names from Di Stefano to Ronaldo through Raul, Zidane, Figo or Casillas.
In Rennes, when we won a game, we did anything. Here, it is only after the very big victories that emotions can overflow.
Eduardo Camavinga
Real have no doubt: they are the biggest club in the world. Playing it is a privilege, winning is normal. Eduardo Camavinga understood this in the dressing room on January 16, 2022, after Real's coronation in the Spanish Super Cup. "In Rennes, when we won a match, we did anything, laughed the Frenchman for the magazine France Football. Here, it is only after the very big victories that emotions can overflow.
»Thus, everyone wants to stay at Real, even if it means making financial concessions. And the few who are too greedy will never be regretted. Sergio Ramos, legendary Madrid captain, won everything between 2005 and 2021. He left at the end of his contract at Paris Saint-Germain, disgusted that Real did not break his tradition for him. "I wanted two more years of contract for me and my family," defended the Spaniard, 35 at the time.
No thirty-year-olds recruited in the last ten years
This requirement, in Madrid, is not only in the air. Tauliers are in competition. Whether it was Gonzalo Higuain, Alvaro Morata, Mariano Diaz or Chicharito, no centre-forward could challenge Benzema's starting spot. In 2019, Real spent €63 million on Luka Jovic, a 21-year-old Serbian prodigy, perceived as the successor of the Frenchman whose decline is already feared. Three years later, Benzema was awarded Ballon d'Or and Jovic as a substitute at Fiorentina.
Luka Modric, 37, and Eduardo Camavinga, 20. SUSANA VERA
It is this constant pressure that forces the requirement. If they want to have that chance to stay at Casa Blanca, the elders must be beyond reproach, on and off the pitch. "We also have to think about the day they stop, look at the future of the club," Ancelotti said last month.
Real paid €31m for Eduardo Camavinga in 2021, and €80m for Aurélien Tchouameni in 2022. The second takes his trouble in patience on the bench. Where some clubs would make him play at all costs to justify his price, Real detaches itself from these injunctions.
Modric well on his way to extending
Perhaps the most symbolic of this "management of the elderly" at Real is this figure unveiled by the CIES Football Observatory (International Centre for Sports Studies) in October 2022. Over the last ten years, the merengue club has not recruited any players aged 30 or older. It is the only one in this case within the 5 major European championships. If there are grandparents in the team, it is because they really deserved it, that they have in them the Real Madrid DNA.
Against Manchester City, Ancelotti will obviously count on Kroos, Modric and Benzema. "I think they will stay" one more season, shared the Italian coach. For the Croatian milieu, this is on the right track. Last year, he had extended ten days after the coronation in the Champions League, and after taming the midfield... Manchester City in the semi-finals (4-3, 3-1). Bis repetita?