Real Madrid Prepares for Schalke Friendly: New Signings and Key Doubts

Real Madrid head to Germany on Sunday for one last dress rehearsal before the real thing begins.

Mourinho’s team face Schalke 04 in Gelsenkirchen on August 16, their final pre-season friendly and the last stop before La Liga kicks off with a trip to Espanyol on August 22. The summer has been long, heavy, and full of change. This game will be the final snapshot before Mourinho locks in his first competitive XI.

New faces, old expectations

On Sunday, Real Madrid fans should finally get a first look at several of the club’s new signings in white.

Yan Diomande, Marc Cucurella and Ibrahima Konate are all available and still waiting for their Real Madrid debuts. Germany could be their launchpad. Mourinho has used pre-season to test, rotate and experiment, but this match carries a different weight: it is the last chance to fine-tune before Espanyol.

Kylian Mbappe, back in training this week after his post-World Cup break, is another who could step onto the pitch for the first time under the Portuguese coach. His presence alone shifts the mood. If he plays, even for a short spell, the spotlight in Gelsenkirchen will swing firmly in his direction.

Bellingham and Tchouameni: big doubts, bigger roles

The intrigue does not stop with the new arrivals. The biggest question marks revolve around two players Mourinho views as pillars of his project: Jude Bellingham and Aurelien Tchouameni.

Bellingham returned to training on Wednesday. Now the decision sits with Mourinho: risk him in Germany or hold him back for Espanyol? The plan is clear for the season. Bellingham will be restored to his natural zone, operating as an attacking midfielder just behind the centre-forward, the position where he can drive games and dictate the tempo in the final third.

Tchouameni finds himself in a similar situation. The French midfielder is recovering from a minor muscular issue. The expectation is that he will be ready for the league opener, but his involvement against Schalke is still up in the air. His battle for a place will be fierce. Mourinho wants a double pivot, and Tchouameni will have to fight off competition from Federico Valverde, Bernardo Silva and Eduardo Camavinga to secure his spot.

For now, both remain doubts for Sunday. For the season, they are anything but.

Injury list grows, six to stay home

Not everyone will be boarding the plane to Germany.

Real Madrid will travel without Raul Asencio, Ferland Mendy, Rodrygo, Thiago Pitarch and Eder Militao. All five are sidelined with injuries and will remain in Madrid to continue their recovery programmes while the rest of the squad sharpens up in Gelsenkirchen.

The absences do not end there. Endrick has also suffered a muscle overload and is expected to miss the Schalke clash. It is a frustration for Mourinho, who would have liked one more look at the Brazilian before the season begins.

The coach will hope that Endrick, along with Bellingham and Tchouameni, are all fit and available when Real Madrid walk out in Barcelona to face Espanyol next week. That is the real deadline.

A historic summer in the academy

While the first team prepares for its final friendly, another story is unfolding quietly but dramatically at Valdebebas.

The exodus from the Real Madrid academy this summer shows no sign of slowing. One by one, some of La Fabrica’s most highly regarded prospects are leaving in search of opportunity and minutes elsewhere. The latest name on that list is Jacobo Ortega, who is set for a move to Strasbourg. If completed, it would make him the most expensive sale of a Real Madrid youth player who has yet to appear for the first team.

And Ortega will not be the last.

Real Madrid are also expected to approve the departures of two more academy products, David Jimenez and Manuel Angel. Both have effectively reached the end of their cycle with Castilla. Interest is widespread, from top-flight clubs to teams in the second division and beyond, but nothing has yet advanced far enough to close a deal.

The club is being careful. Jimenez and Manuel Angel have been training separately and have been deliberately left out of Castilla’s pre-season friendlies and matchday squads. No one at Valdebebas wants to see a transfer scuppered by a poorly timed injury.

Once Ortega’s sale and the other moves are completed, the numbers will be staggering. Academy departures this summer are set to generate more than €200 million, a figure described internally as historic.

Two leaders of a golden generation

These are not fringe names being quietly moved on. Both Manuel Angel and David Jimenez were key figures in Alvaro Arbeloa’s treble-winning academy generation, a group that also featured Nico Paz and Gonzalo Garcia.

Manuel Angel, a 22-year-old midfielder who joined La Fabrica in 2014, has long been viewed as one of the jewels of Valdebebas. Ambidextrous, composed, and intelligent in possession, he even broke into the first team towards the end of last season, making seven appearances. Now the priority is clear: find a club where he can play regularly and continue his development at senior level.

Jimenez offers a different profile but similar promise. An attacking full-back with one of the best right feet in the academy, he has been praised for his leadership and his aggressive, forward-thinking approach down the flank. Comparisons to Dani Carvajal have followed him for some time. Like Manuel Angel, he also featured for the first team last season, catching the eye under both Xabi Alonso and Arbeloa.

For both players, the next step is decisive. Real Madrid, the footballers themselves, and their entourages are now simply waiting for the right offer to land on the table.

As the first team tunes up in Gelsenkirchen and the academy cashes in on a generation, one question hangs over the club: will this summer’s bold reshaping of the squad and La Fabrica look visionary when the season reaches its sharp end, or will the cost of so much change come back to haunt them?