Last January, four days ahead of his 34th birthday, Nacho finally fulfilled a dream he’d been cultivating for at least two thirds of his life. With the Real Madrid captain’s armband wrapped around his right bicep, he received a trophy before thousands of exuberant madridistas, and lifted it to the Riyadh skies.
After that triumph, especially sweet in that Barcelona had just been defeated 4-1 in the Spanish Super Cup final, the trophy lifts became habitual, three in a hurry.
The Madrid captain accepted La Liga silverware in May, the Uefa Champions League earlier this month, and, if many of the prognoses come to pass, Nacho may also feature prominently in the celebratory photos for another significant title in mid-July – as part of the Spain team who have made such and electrifying start to the European Championship in Germany.
By then Nacho will be planning his next trip to Saudi Arabia, for a long-term stay at Al Qadsiah, newly promoted to the Pro League and visibly ambitious about their return to the country’s top division.
For a Pro League conscious of its global status, the signing of Real Madrid’s captain is a headline event. The Saudi football map now features two of the last three captains to have lifted the European Cup, the most esteemed title in club football – the other is Al Ittihad’s Karim Benzema, Real Madrid’s Ballon d’Or winning star for their double in 2021/22.
Nacho’s arrival is an endorsement that the league’s competitive landscape is adjusting from one where the so-called “Big Four” – Al Hilal, Al Nassr, Al Ittihad and Al Ahli – are viewed with resigned apprehension by the rest, to a broader base of genuine challengers. Al Qadsiah have the financial backing of Aramco, and a clear target of establishing Khodar, where they are based, as a centre of excellence to rival Riyadh and Jeddah.
Nacho, who has spent the last few months mulling over possible moves to the US Major League Soccer and a contract renewal offer from Madrid, where his current deal expires on June 30, has been persuaded of that. Beyond the clear appeal of the reported €10 million package offered him for his two-year deal, he listened to compatriots like Michel, the coach who oversaw Al Qadsiah’s promotion and was once a Real Madrid captain himself, and positively assessed at the club’s wider recruitment plans.
Nacho will be part of a defence strengthened already this summer by the signing of Koen Casteels, the goalkeeper who is No 1 for Belgium at the Euros. He has heard recommendations about the set-up from fellow Spaniard, Alvaro Gonzalez, a former teammate with the title-winning national under-21s, who was part of Al Qadsiah’s promotion side.
“The club’s owners have big sporting ambitions,” according to Casteels, “and it’s a league that’s becoming more and more attractive. You just have to look at the names of the European players there.”
A glance at how some of those names are performing in Germany also made a compelling argument. After some pre-tournament curiosity about how fit, sharp and ready the 14 Pro League players called up by their countries for the Euros might be compared with players employed in, say, the English Premier League, La Liga, the Bundesliga or Italy’s Serie A, there is a growing acknowledgement that a season spent in the biggest-spending league outside Europe is no impediment to vigorous displays for an elite national team.
Witness Al Ittihad’s N’Golo Kante, recalled by France after a two-year absence for the national team and, in his two appearances so far at the Euros, once again the tireless midfield motor of Les Bleus. Or Al Nassr’s Cristiano Ronaldo, 39 years old but leading the line, unsubstituted, through Portugal’s efficient claiming of top place in their group with a fixture to spare.
Among those offering Nacho direct insights into Saudi club football over the past two weeks has been his Spain colleague, Aymeric Laporte, who confronted several sceptical questions over how well he had maintained the level of his football after leaving Manchester City – and a Uefa Champions League trophy-lift – last year to join Al Nassr.
“The fact is people have prejudices about the league, and of course we are all conscious that it seems new to some and that its marketing is still developing, bit by bit,” said Laporte. “But in the future it will be seen as more and more competitive. It’s worth saying that, here at the Euros, Kante has been man of the match twice for France.”
Spain 3 Croatia 0 – player ratings
Laporte was commanding for Spain in their 1-0 win over Italy, his place in the starting XI facilitated by a minor injury to Nacho, who had been picked ahead of Laporte for La Roja’s opening 3-0 victory over Croatia.
Nacho’s injury may keep him out of Monday's game against Albania but he is expected to be recovered in time for the last-16 tie Spain have already assured themselves in Cologne and it did not affect his fitness tests ahead of agreeing his new contract with Al Qadsiah.
As negotiations intensified, the defender had asked to be spared media duties with Spain, but he is expected to speak about the move at some stage during the Euros.
Those close to Nacho speak of a genuine emotional wrench, in deciding to leave Madrid, the club he has been attached to since the age of 11, and where his loyalty is hugely admired. For long periods, it has meant sitting patiently on the bench, a deputy to some of the most formidable – and long-lasting – centre-backs in the game.
When he made his debut for Madrid’s seniors, back in 2011, Sergio Ramos and Pepe were first choice at the heart of the back four. When he made his 364th and last appearance for the club, in the Champions League final against Borussia Dortmund three weekends ago, he was partnering Antonio Rudiger in a team missing, because of injury, David Alaba and Eder Militao.
Spain 1 Italy 0 – player ratings
That constancy at Madrid, where he won a record-equalling 26 trophies, among them six European Cups, and that willingness to accept a back-up role, year after year in his 20s, helped establish Nacho as an unusually rounded footballer. He made himself versatile, trusted as much at right-back or left-back as in his principal position, centre-back. He has often been tasked with specialist man-marking jobs.
Assuming Neymar recovers fitness to be playing regularly for Al Hilal in the coming season, the Brazilian will go into the games against Al Qadsiah remembering Nacho’s rigorous policing of him during some momentous meetings between Paris Saint-Germain, Neymar’s former club, and Madrid.
Nacho’s position as Madrid club captain, assumed after Benzema left the Spanish capital for Jeddah a year ago, owed both to his long service and natural qualities of leadership. Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti had come to sound out Nacho as much as any senior player about tactical decisions and the Italian confidently forecasts, that, of all the players he has worked with in the last three seasons, Nacho is the likeliest to successfully pursue a career in coaching when his playing days are over.
Nacho and Ancelotti have, though, disagreed on one major issue. The Italian waved his trusted captain off to the Euros with a plea. “Don’t do anything crazy,” Ancelotti told him, pointing him towards the contract renewal on offer at the Bernabeu, “stay with us here at Madrid.”
Nacho has instead chosen a fresh, intrepid direction. He will be missed at the club that defined him.
