Real Madrid aren’t quite so renowned for their talent factory academy like bitter rivals Barcelona, but who cares when you can simply sign all the best young talents before anyone else?
While Florentino Perez has done an exceptional job in thinking Real is exclusively home to football’s biggest superstars, the club has developed a knack for being able to spot and take a gamble on emerging prospects from around the world in a bid to secure long-term greatness.
Not all of them make it, and when you’re signing players at such an early point in their career you’re bound to get burned here and there, but one thing Real tend to get right is promising Br azilians.
In fact, they almost always get it right. Br azilians and Real Madrid go together like bread and butter.
So when you see clips of Endrick defying the laws of physics for Palmeiras and scoring goals that will literally make your brain melt, it can only be a good thing – and a terrible one for all of Real’s opponents in the coming years.
Set to arrive to Europe in 2024, the teenager appears to be hitting the very ceiling of what he’s able to achieve in Br azil and it’s making for glorious viewing.
You know that point in time when a player knows they’re becoming exceptional and realises there’s nothing anybody can do about it at this moment in time? Yeah, Endrick has reached that moment.
It’s becoming abundantly clear that Real’s teenage sensation is more than ready for a new challenge in Europe next year, mostly because he’s now completely taking the p*ss out of every defender who tries to stop him in South America.
Reminiscent of Gareth Bale in the year before he made the move to Madrid, Endrick has unlocked an almost God-like power of ‘f*ck it, I’m miles better than everybody here’ and it culminated as Palmeiras came back from 3-0 down to somehow beat Botafogo 4-3.
Endrick was at the double and his first goal – to give his side hope and make the game 3-1 – was a sublime, slaloming finish worthy of all the accolades. But the fact it’s been completely overlooked tells you exactly how special his second was, to make the game 3-2 and bring the comeback to life.
Picking up the pieces from a free-kick that was only cleared to the edge of the area, the ball drops kindly into his path, basically begging to be struck first time out of the air and smashed towards goal.
Most of us would’ve taken that invitation. But then again, most of us aren’t Endrick and have to settle for 40 minutes in a cage on a Wednesday night.
Instead of snatching at the chance, the 17-year-old somehow visualizes the most FIFA Street goal imaginable – and brings it to life.
As the ball drops, Endrick produces a fake shot that still has us questioning exactly what the physics were behind it, completely selling the defender in front of him and giving him half a yard of space to rifle the ball into the bottom corner with his turbocharged left foot.
All in a matter of seconds.
Seriously, how on earth has he done that? Barely comprehensible.
He’s not even touched down on European soil yet, but we can already smell that first Champions League golazo.
Los Blancos have absolutely done it again. Their Avengers-esque lineup of genetic freaks and generational prospects only continues to become more fearsome.