Carlo Ancelotti confirms Real Madrid are watching 20-year-old creative talent | OneFootball

Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti has confirmed that the club are keeping tabs on creative midfielder Nico Paz, who has landed on his feet in Serie A. The Argentina international left Real Madrid in the summer to join Como, and has become a key player for Cesc Fabregas.

Paz was given a handful of minutes two seasons ago by Ancelotti before the arrival of Arda Guler, during which he impressed, scoring against Napoli in the Champions League. Yet last season he dropped out of the first-team dynamics, and moved to Como for €6m, although Real Madrid have a buyback option on him.

“We follow him a lot. I think this year of training outside of Real Madrid is going to be very good for him. He is a player who we think will be the future of Real Madrid,” he explained to Radio Anch’io Sport, as quoted by Marca.

Ancelotti was also asked about the composition of Real Madrid’s squad. It has recently been reported that Los Blancos want to make their squad more Spanish, and currently they have just six players from Spain in their squad, two of which are fringe defenders in Jesus Vallejo and Raul Asencio.

“It is true that the Real Madrid squad is full of foreigners and that many young players have arrived in recent years. The latest cases, Guler and Endrick are slowly entering the team. But the Spanish group is always very important because it determines the atmosphere of the locker room. The fortune of Real Madrid in this last year has had to do with the fact that the Spanish group has been very serious, professional and very powerful.”

The lack of trust in the Real Madrid academy has been questioned in recent months, with only Asencio being given any game time, despite injuries leaving them down to the bare bones. Ancelotti has commented in the past that his job is to win games not bring through young players, but Paz could follow in the path of Lucas Vazquez, Dani Carvajal, and Fran Garcia, all of who left to be signed back by Real Madrid.