Recently, former Real Madrid player Marcelo accepted a podcast interview with former teammate Iker Casillas. In it, he looked back on his career, talked about Xabi Alonso’s situation, and also mentioned his fellow Brazilians Vinicius Jr. and Rodrygo. The following is the second part of the interview.
Click - Part 1: About Brazil’s 1-7 Defeat to Germany
How do you see Xabi Alonso at Real Madrid now, all those talks, those remarks, the pressure that Real Madrid coaches always face? Since we were all his teammates, how do you evaluate the discussions people have at every moment?
Look, since I retired from football, I haven’t watched much, I don’t follow it closely, but of course I know what’s going on—I see things and hear things on social media. I think we need to give him time; he’s doing a great job. Obviously, given everything we went through at Real Madrid, people will talk, debating if it’s working or not. I don’t know if that’s the case now, but I think Real Madrid are fine, really fine. The players are winning, it doesn’t look like anything too bad. Xabi Alonso is a very smart coach to me—he proved that last season, and now at Real Madrid. But the pressure at Real Madrid is always bigger, way bigger than anywhere else. That is to say, maybe at his previous clubs, a draw or loss wasn’t a big deal, but at Real Madrid, if you lose, they want to cut your head off.
That’s the norm at Real Madrid, that’s how it is. I want to ask you about all the talk around Vinicius in recent times, even in previous seasons. I want to hear your opinion as a Brazilian, and what advice you might give him at some point to make people… well, he’s already brilliant, but to make people talk more about his football than other things.
Vinicius, I saw him when he first arrived at 18. To be honest, he had his qualities but needed to improve a lot, had a lot of things to work on. He’s a good kid with a good heart, and smart too—he knew to say, “Hey, I need to improve this, I need to do that to become a good Real Madrid player.” So now, he’s undisputed. He has speed, dribbling, passing intelligence. Before, he couldn’t score much, but now he scores, he provides assists, and so on.
As for off-field things, well, I’m not the one to give advice. I think advice is very personal, tailored to the individual. But I don’t know—when you play for Real Madrid and you’re a Brazilian international, you’re in the spotlight. I was in the spotlight too, you were in the spotlight, but I think Vinicius’ situation is a bit more… right? Chattering, rambling during the heat of the game, talking to people, talking to the coach, whatever it is—that’s only a problem for yourself. What I think he should do, and what I would do, is stay quiet, train, play, score goals, and let them talk, talk, talk. Because in the end, if you argue, the problem is on you; if you don’t talk, the problem is still on you. When you’re in the spotlight, everything is a problem. So I would stay calm, just like I think he’s doing now—he doesn’t talk about it much anymore. He’s playing amazing football, I love it, I’m happy for him. Because I saw how bad he had it with the criticism, people saying he didn’t deserve to be at Real Madrid, all those memes and stuff.
Yeah, stupid things, right? Hey, what about Rodrygo?
Rodrygo, I also think he’s a football genius. He’s a typical Brazilian who has everything under control. But from what I know, he hasn’t been playing much lately. But that’s Real Madrid—you need a lot of luck, you have to do things right, the coach has to trust you, there are so many factors… Rodrygo is a top-level player to me, we all see that. But football is like that—one day you’re in form and you play, or in form and you don’t; one day you’re out of form and you play. That’s how it goes.
