Rising Ballers: Eduardo Camavinga is the present and future of Real Madrid’s midfield

It already feels like Eduardo Camavinga has been around for a long time. For a 20-year-old, that’s absurd.

I first heard Camavinga’s name after his club at the time, Stade Rennais, defeated Thomas Tuchel’s Paris Saint-Germain in the second match of the 2019-20 Ligue 1 season. Camavinga — at just 16 years old — recorded an assist and earned the man of the match award in a 2-1 victory. Keep in mind he had already made his professional debut during the previous season. He became Stade Rennais’s youngest-ever player, for a club with a youth academy that has also produced the likes of FC Barcelona’s Ousmane Dembélé and French international Yann M’Vila.

We’ve seen Camavinga progress and improve for almost four years now, and other teams should be terrified because he still has multiple levels left to unlock in his game. 

Camavinga can play any position in the midfield and has even done a stint at left back for Real Madrid and the French national team. In the 2022 World Cup this past November, French Manager Didier Deschamps trusted Camavinga, who had only made five international appearances to that point, to substitute for Theo Hernández and play the position for about 50 minutes of the World Cup final.

For some players, their versatility hurts their career prospects, as coaches fail to find their absolute 

best position and simply use them to plug holes as they arise. That’s not the case for Camavinga because he can play across positions without sacrificing quality in his main role: the deep-lying playmaker. 

I use the word “role” here, not “position,” with intention. Camavinga plays his best in midfield, but his nominal position does not matter. He could play the number 6 position behind two advanced midfielders, or he could play in a double pivot in a 4-2-3-1 formation to equal effect. He could even play further forward in a more overtly attacking space. Either way, Camavinga can receive the ball from the defenders, carry it through midfield and play silky passes into the attackers or have a crack himself. 

Camavinga’s lightning-fast footwork is what separates him from other all-action midfielders. He steps and slices with the ball quickly, allowing him to open up spaces that didn’t seem to exist the moment prior. The way he chops and changes direction in the midfield makes opposing players look foolish for even daring to step near him. That’s why Real Madrid shelled out €31 million to sign him from Stade Rennais in the summer of 2021.

His dribbling proficiency shows up in the numbers too. According to FBref, Camavinga completes 2.64 progressive carries per match (when a player takes the ball 10 yards forward or further) and successfully dribbles past players 1.58 times per match. The first figure ranks in the 89th percentile among comparable players, and the second is even more impressive, at the 945th percentile. 

Camavinga posts these numbers while sharing the midfield with some other excellent dribblers. His teammate Luka Modrić is one of the best midfield dribblers ever, and Federico Valverde is no slouch either. As Real Madrid’s youngest midfielder, one would forgive Camavinga for ceding touches to Modrić and others, but he takes an active and aggressive role in Madrid’s attack. 

The Frenchman also has a calm yet fiery demeanor that deserves merit. During the 2021-22 season, Camavinga was not always starting matches for Madrid, especially in the Champions League. With Modrić, Toni Kroos and Casemiro in the team, any young midfielder would find it hard to win starts. But instead of kicking a fuss or sulking, Camavinga played a crucial role in Madrid’s Champions League-winning campaign. Manager Carlo Ancelotti relied on him to be a super-sub. In three successive rounds, Real Madrid had come-from-behind victories that probably wouldn’t have happened without Camavinga. He played just 125 minutes in the Champions League knockout matches, but in that time Madrid scored eight goals and conceded just once. 

If he made himself indispensable without even playing full matches, imagine what it will be like when Modrić retires, and Camavinga is handed the keys to the castle. 

Real Madrid won three straight Champions Leagues from 2016 to 2018. Cristiano Ronaldo played a huge part in that, but it was the steely midfield trio of Modrić, Kroos and Casemiro that sealed their dominance. With Camavinga at its core, Real Madrid could have the best midfield for another decade, and Madridistas must be salivating. 

Alongside Valverde and Aurélien Tchouaméni, Real Madrid already has the core of their next title-winning squad. With dynamic forwards like Vinícius Júnior and Rodrygo ahead of them, the sky is the limit. Predicting any club to win three straight Champions Leagues is a fool’s errand, but if anyone can do it twice in two decades, it’s Real Madrid. 

Whatever level of success Real Madrid achieves, Camavinga will be the midfield engine making it happen. 

Jack Hallinan is a sophomore writing about the top wonderkids in men’s and women’s soccer in his column “Rising Ballers,” which runs every other Wednesday.