“They have burned him in a bad way,” they lament in La Fábrica, where the figure of Arbeloa It’s gigantic. As much as the legacy he leaves. The five ‘noisy’ months in the first team have nothing to do with the indelible mark it has left in Valdebebas. The coach leaves leaving a revitalized, modern quarry, protagonist once again in the lower categories of the national team and an estate in ‘jewels’ that is around 200 million euros. It is the result of spectacular work that took him to the top of the first team.
Arbeloa joined the Valdebebas bench in 2020. From that moment on, he forged an alliance with Manu Fernández, head of the Real Madrid youth academy, and together they led the entire an ‘industrial revolution’ at La Fábrica. They turned everything upside down, with Arbeloa little by little gaining strength as he climbed the sports organizational chart. His arrival in 2022 to Juvenil A, one of the most strategic teams, multiplied his impact. Modernized, updated and improved every last corner of the departments. Retailers like few others, nothing escaped their supervision. The connection with Manu Fernández was total and together they have taken the Real Madrid brand of the quarry to its highest level. Not only are there a good handful of players with first team projection, but all the teams have their eyes on La Fábrica to reinforce themselves with Real Madrid youth players. And that means sporting and also economic recognition.
A historic high
The Factory is trading on the rise and it is thanks to the tremendous boost that Arbeloa has given it. The coach has amassed a sporting and economic heritage that is a blessing for Real Madrid. After his brief time at Castilla and the catwalk of youth players who have passed through Real Madrid under his mandate, Arbeloa has not only made La Fábrica fashionable and has catapulted many of their ‘jewels’, it has also caused the Castilla squad to be valued right now at more than 80 million euros. A historic boost with which the coach has injected the club with an impressive million. Arbeloa started in the summer in the reserve team with a squad whose total price was five million euros and has weighed more than 80 kilos.
Arbeloa: “I hope it’s a see you later, this has always been my home”
After the latest market updates, Castilla now has 16 ‘millionaire’ players in their quote. Cestero has shot up to 7.5 million euros and César Palacios to 6 million; Valdepeñas, Diego Aguado, Joan Martínez, David Jiménez and Manuel Ángel have a market value of 5 million euros; Fran González, Fortea, Yáñez and Lamini are at 3 ‘kilos’. Plus many others with a value between one and two million. A valuation never seen before and that represents an open door to the club for operations that generate succulent income.
Thiago Pitarch, the final ‘bomb’
But Arbeloa’s biggest sporting and economic success is that of Thiago Pitarch. The youth player has starred in one of the most striking growth in recent European football. His market value has skyrocketed to 20 million euros, a figure that is especially impressive if one takes into account his limited experience in the elite. The footballer has barely played 15 games with the Real Madrid first team, but his impact has been immediate and His great supporter is Arbeloa. A rush that means injecting a million dollars into the club. Another one, because the two Champions League qualifiers that they won against Benfica and City brought the club income of 33.5 million euros.
Arbeloa is a gold mine. Almost 18 million euros signed by Real Madrid in the last two summers has carried the seal of Arbeloa. His skill in detecting and developing young talents at La Fábrica is behind the latest youth squad operations that have left so many millions of euros in the club’s coffers. Arbeloa catapulted at a young age to Nico Paz, Chema, Jacobo Ramón and Yusiwhich years later have been the protagonists of million-dollar sales. Specifically, Real Madrid has earned 17.5 million euros after the departure to the elite of these four youth players whom the Castilla coach launched into orbit. Players who have now greatly appreciated themselves. Gonzaloon the exit ramp, will be the next hit. If we add to that the current generation of Castilistas, Arbeloa leaves a heritage in ‘jewels’ that is around 200 million euros.
‘Father’ of the last Youth League
But beyond the economic, it is the sporting revolution that has generated in La Fábrica and that has borne fruit in the form of successes. The ‘quarry effect’ has been felt. Juvenil A is the Youth champion, in what represents the peak moment of the exciting and spectacular 2006 and 2007 generations. A group of talents that Arbeloa polished. Fortea, Aguado, Joan Martínez, Yáñez, Cestero, Roberto Martín or Valdepeñas They were Arbeloa’s bets that have been pillars of the youth team that has achieved European glory. All this thanks to the point of maturity and experience acquired with Arbeloa, who made them play under his command without looking at their ID.
Arbeloa reached the top of Real Madrid after six seasons on the Valdebebas bench. Just as there were big names who were deflated in their adventure as coaches, in the case of Arbeloa, expectations did not stop growing. The coach made an impact from the first day in the offices of the Ciudad Deportiva and turned them upside down definitively with his historic triplet in the first year at the helm of Juvenil A, in the 22-23 season. From that moment there was a desire to see him at Castilla, but Raúl’s presence delayed the club’s desire until last summer, when the time came for him to take charge of Madrid’s first reserve team as the culmination of his great career. “We want to see him at Castilla”they recognized in La Fábrica.
winning machines
Season after season he built and led authentic winning machines, a circumstance that he consolidated in his three campaigns at the head of Juvenil A, one of the most strategic and important affiliates of Real Madrid. In his last season as head of the first Real Madrid youth team, he achieved 31 victories in 43 games (72%) played in the League, Youth, Copa del Rey and Champions Cup. In 23-24 there were 29 wins in 40 games (73%) and in 22-23, that of the historic triplet of League, Cup and Champions Cup, 41 victories in 47 games (87%). In his first two seasons on the La Fábrica bench, in 20-21 and 21-22 at the head of Infantil A and Cadete A, respectively, he accumulated a record of 38 victories in 47 games (81%). It put Castilla in the playoff positions and put them in the quarterfinals of the Premier League International Cup after a record of 12 wins, three draws and eight losses in 23 games. In total, Arbeloa rose to the challenge of Real Madrid with a spectacular record of 151 wins in 200 games coached at La Fábrica.
Of the many effects that the ‘Arbeloa boom’ caused, one of them is that Madrid recovered the lost prominence in the lower categories of the national team. Throughout his career at La Fábrica de Arbeloa, almost twenty youth players under his command have become international players for the first time. Valdepeñas, Ignacio Gascón, Mesonero, Diego Aguado, Cristian David, Jacobo Ramón, César Palacios, Chema, Thiago Pitarch, David Jiménez, Pol Durán, Paulo Iago, Yáñez, Álvaro González, José Antonio Reyes, Joan Londoño, Roi Torres…
Arbeloa managed to put La Fábrica into orbit. For months in Valdebebas there has been a different atmosphere. “Of course it is very difficult to get into the first team, but now we see the door closer…”they recognized from within. And it was not an empty illusion. Those who have had opportunities responded, competed and showed that the level exists. The only thing missing was opportunities. A scream that Arbeloa heard. Now his goodbye generates a new ‘downturn’ in Valdebebas, which celebrated the presence of a coach who has believed like no one else that La Fábrica had a place in the first team.