Has Real Madrid locked down the future core of the Spanish National Team?

Real Madrid has quietly gone about its business in the past couple of seasons, building a team that is not just competitive but also young. The capital side has incorporated some fantastic Spanish talent into their squad over the years like Dani Carvajal, Isco Alcarón, Nacho Fernández, Lucas Vazquez and Alvaro Morata. However, Madrid has outdone itself by purchasing upcoming players like Jesús Vallejo, Borja Mayoral, Marco Asensio and Marcos Llorente—the reported arrival of Dani Ceballos would mark Real Madrid’s stamp over the future of the Spanish National Team.

Locking down the future crop of Spain is an incredibly clever decision on the part of Los Merengues.

In the FIFA World Cup of 2010 and the following Euro in 2012, Barcelona contributed 7 players to La Roja in comparison to Real Madrid’s 5. Some critics went as far as attributing the greatest period in Spanish football to Catalonia and FC Barcelona.

Barcelona has been known to rely heavily on homegrown talent dating back to the Franco’s regime when there was a biased restriction on transfers of foreign players.

That policy eventually led to the development of La Masia and gave Barça its golden generation of players.

Real Madrid has finally struck gold by making smart moves for highly coveted raw Spanish talent, which reflects on their sound sporting plan and financial planning. Their squad is strong, and they have done enough to reinforce it with elite youngsters.

It is only a matter of time before these players form the core of the La Roja and should things keep pressing on, then Barcelona will find itself playing catch-up for at least a decade.

If the current summer is any indication of Barcelona’s sporting plan, there’s very little hope for Culés.