He played for Madrid? 10 Forgotten Real Madrid Signings
Real Madrid Signings You Might Struggle to Remember
Real Madrid is often associated with signing many of football’s biggest and best names - but there are some anomalies.
Read on to find out more about 10 signings you might not remember Real Madrid making…
Forgotten Real Madrid signing Nuri Şahin
The club is commonly identified with the term ‘Galactico’, which applies to numerous superstar players Real Madrid has signed, including Cristiano Ronaldo, Kaka, David Beckham and Luis Figo.
However, for every superstar that has joined and left a considerable mark on Real Madrid’s history, many more have been and gone through the Bernabeu- and they’ve quickly been forgotten.
Read about 10 forgotten Real Madrid signings throughout the years!
Walter Samuel: 2004-05
Even before joining Real Madrid, Walter Samuel was already on his way to becoming one of the best centre-backs of his generation.
The Argentine defender had spent the previous four seasons at the heart of Fabio Capello’s A. S. Roma team that challenged for the Serie A title, winning it in 2001.
Samuel’s performances for Roma would lead to European Sports Magazine including him in their 2001-02 and 2003-04 European Team of the Season.
Impressed with Walter Samuel’s performances, Real Madrid would make the 26-year-old their first signing of the 2004 summer transfer window, obtaining his signature for £22.5 million on 1st July 2004.
Upon his arrival, Samuel would compete with fellow new signing Jonathan Woodgate and the more established pairing of Iván Helguera and Francisco Pavón for a starting position in the middle of the Real Madrid backline.
Los Blancos would hope Samuel could add some steel to a defence that had finished fourth in La Liga the previous season while conceding 54 goals in 38 matches.
Meanwhile, in his final season at Roma, Samuel had been part of a back five that had let in just 19 goals in 34 games.
Walter Samuel’s Real Madrid career would not have the best start. In his first start against Espanyol, Samuel would be sent off after 64 minutes in a 1-0 defeat that saw Real Madrid end the match with nine men.
In fact, Samuel would have to wait five games for his first win, a 1-0 win over Valencia on 23rd October.
After these early setbacks, Samuel would become a central figure in the Real Madrid defence, starting 40 matches in all competitions and producing ten clean sheets.
However, Samuel’s discipline would sometimes let him down, with the Argentinian picking up 17 yellow and two red cards during his first season in the Spanish capital.
With the centre-back pairing of Walter Samuel and Iván Helguera along with goalkeeper Iker Casillas and full-backs Michel Salgado and Roberto Carlos, Real Madrid would significantly improve on the previous season, finishing 2nd in La Liga, four points behind Barcelona.
In addition, only Barcelona (29) conceded fewer league goals than Real Madrid (32) during the 2004-05 season.
However, despite significantly improving Real Madrid’s defence during the previous season, Walter Samuel would not last long at the Bernabeu.
One year after his arrival, Samuel left Real Madrid and returned to Italy, signing for Inter Milan for £14.4 million.
Samuel would remain at Inter for nine seasons, winning thirteen trophies, including five Serie A titles and the Champions League.
However, Samuel’s Real Madrid departure in the summer of 2005 would lead to a 19-year-old Sergio Ramos arriving at the Santiago Bernabeu in the same transfer window.
Javier Saviola: 2007-09
At the time of writing, Javier Saviola is the most recent player to cross the famous Barcelona-Real Madrid divide.
However, unlike Bernd Schuster, Michael Laudrup and Luis Figo, Saviola would not manage to replicate his Barcelona form once in the white shirt of Los Merengues.
Once regarded as a potential heir to Diego Maradona, Javier Saviola would sign for Barcelona for £15 million while still aged 19.
By the summer of 2007, Saviola had become part of the furniture at the Nou Camp, racking up 70 goals in 168 appearances.
However, the signings of Samuel Eto’o, Henrik Larsson and Eidur Gudjohnsen pushed the Argentinian striker down the pecking order, with Saviola spending the 2004-05 and 2005-06 seasons on loan at Monaco and Sevilla.
With Thierry Henry set to arrive at the Nou Camp, new Real Madrid manager Bernd Schuster would lead Saviola along the path he had once successfully travelled.
On 10th June 2007, Javier Saviola joined the reigning Spanish champions on a free transfer while signing a four-year contract with the club.
Saviola would become the latest member of a title-winning forward line that already included Ruud van Nistelrooy, Robinho, Gonzalo Higuaín and Raúl.
Due to this talent, Javier Saviola would make just 16 appearances for Real Madrid during the 2007-08 season, starting just seven matches.
He would appear in four of Real Madrid’s first five league matches, debuting as a substitute in a 1-0 derby win over Atletico Madrid on 25th August before starting and scoring in a 3-1 win over Almeria two weeks later.
However, after this encouraging start, Javier Saviola would only appear in five more league matches after 30th September 2007.
Even when he made an appearance for Real Madrid, these appearances would mostly come from the bench in the Champions League group stages and in the Copa del Rey.
While Real Madrid comfortably defended their La Liga title, Saviola would play little part in it, scoring just once more in a 3-0 win over Atletico on 27th April 2008.
Despite Robinho and Roberto Soldado leaving for pastures new in the summer of 2008, Javier Saviola’s playing time at Real Madrid would decrease during his second season at the Bernabeu.
He would play 14 matches in all competitions during the 2008-09 season, making just four starts. All four of these starts would come in October and November 2008.
Saviola could only watch as his fellow countryman Gonzalo Higuain enjoyed a breakthrough season for Real.
At the same time, his previous club Barcelona, led by Pep Guardiola, produced one of the greatest seasons the sport has ever known.
With Cristiano Ronaldo, Alvaro Negredo and Karim Benzema arriving at the beginning of the second ‘Galacticos’ era in the summer of 2009, Javier Saviola would take his cue to leave.
He would sign for Portuguese giants Benfica for £4.5 million on 1st July 2009.
At Benfica, Saviola would strike an effective partnership with Oscar Cardozo, helping Benfica win the Primeira Liga in his first season at the club.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar: 2009
Between 2007 and 2009, Real Madrid’s transfer policy involved signing every leading Dutch international.
During Bernd Schuster’s two-season tenure in charge, Royston Drenthe, Wesley Sneijder, Arjen Robben and Rafael van der Vaart would join Los Blancos, with Ruud van Nistelrooy already an established part of the club.
Midway through the 2008-09 season, Ajax striker Klaas-Jan Huntelaar would increase Real Madrid’s Dutch contingent to six players.
When he joined, Huntelaar was the most prolific striker in the Dutch Eredivisie, scoring 76 goals in 92 appearances for Ajax over the previous three-and-a-half seasons.
Wanting to challenge Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona for the La Liga title, Bernd Schuster would spend £24.3m to bring the prolific 25-year-old to the Santiago Bernabéu.
Joining on New Year’s Day 2009, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar would appear in 19 matches for Real Madrid, with all these matches coming exclusively in La Liga.
The club wanted to add the Dutchman and fellow new addition Lassana Diarra to their Champions League squad ahead of their last-16 tie with Liverpool.
However, both players would be cup-tied for the rest of Real Madrid’s Champions League campaign, having already participated in that season’s UEFA Cup.
After making his full Real Madrid debut alongside Raúl in a 1-0 win over Villarreal on 4th January, Huntelaar would then spend the next five matches on the bench as Gonzalo Higuain returned to the side.
However, he would soon find a rich vein of form, scoring eight goals in six games between 15th February and 22nd March, including braces against Real Betis (6-1), Athletic Bilbao (5-2) and Almería (3-0).
However, failing to find the net in his next four matches would see him drop out of the starting XI for most of Real Madrid’s remaining matches.
Klaas-Jan Huntelaar would end his half-season with eight goals in nineteen games, including thirteen starts.
At the end of the season, Manuel Pellegrini would replace Bernd Schuster as Real Madrid’s manager.
The Chilean would sign Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema and Alvaro Negredo in the forward positions, numbering Klaas-Jan Huntelaar’s days in the Spanish capital.
After six months at the club, Huntelaar left Real Madrid, moving to AC Milan for £13.5 million in August 2009.
Nicolas Anelka: 1999-2000
When Real Madrid confirmed the signing of Nicolas Anelka for £22.5 million in July 1999, they knew they had one of the most exciting young prospects in world football.
Leaving PSG for the bright lights of the Premiership in February 1997, aged 17, Anelka had shown his exceptional talents across two-and-a-half seasons playing for Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal.
After winning the Double in 1998, Anelka had broken through during the 1998-99 season, scoring 19 goals in all competitions to win the PFA Young Player of the Year Award.
In addition, Anelka had already earned nine international caps for France, starting seven of these matches.
With Anelka producing these numbers so young, Real Madrid president Lorenzo Sanz and manager John Toshack could not allow such a talented youngster to slip through their fingers.
Thus, Anelka would become the latest member of Real’s young forward line along with Raúl, Samuel Eto’o and Fernando Morientes.
Nicolas Anelka would make 33 appearances in all competitions for Real Madrid during the 1999-2000 season.
After his debut, Anelka would flit between the starting line-up and the bench throughout the season, even after Vicente Del Bosque had replaced John Toshack as Real Madrid’s manager.
While Raúl and Fernando Morientes were regular fixtures, Anelka often competed with English midfielder Steve McManaman and Brazilian winger Savio for a starting spot.
A significant reason for the French striker’s inconsistent selection was his inability to regularly score goals.
Even though injuries would keep him out of much of the second half of the season, Anelka would only score seven times in 33 appearances.
However, when Anelka did score, it mattered. He would break his duck by top scoring in the 1999 FIFA Club World Cup.
He would score in group-stage matches over Al-Nassr (3-0) and Corinthians (2-2) before an injury cut his tournament short.
He would finally notch his first league goal in a 3-0 win over Barcelona on 26th February 2000.
He would also score in both legs of Real Madrid’s Champions League semi-final with Bayern Munich as Madrid progressed to the final with a 3-2 aggregate scoreline.
However, at the end of the season, Anelka’s record of 7 goals in 31 games spoke for itself, especially compared to those of Raul (29 goals in 57 appearances) and Fernando Morientes (19 goals in 51 appearances).
After one year with the world’s biggest club, Anelka would return home to PSG in July 2000 in a deal costing £22 million.
Sergio Canales: 2010-12
In a window in which they also signed Ángel Di María, Sami Khedira, Ricardo Carvalho and Mesut Özil, Real Madrid would begin their 2010 summer transfer business by signing 19-year-old attacking midfielder Sergio Canales from Racing Santander.
The previous season, Canales had broken into the Santander first team, making 26 appearances and scoring six goals.
He had also been a member of the Spain team that had finished as runners-up in the 2010 UEFA U-19 European Championship, starting in all the crucial matches.
After these performances, he would join Real Madrid for £5.4 million, becoming Jose Mourinho’s first signing.
The club clearly had faith in him as a star for the future, immediately giving him a six-year contract.
Sergio Canales would make his Real Madrid debut by starting the club’s opening match of the 2010-11 La Liga season.
Canales would play in the No.10 role alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and Ángel Di María behind Gonzalo Higuain before being substituted for Mesut Özil in the 58th minute.
Two weeks later, he would make his Champions League debut as an 88th-minute sub in Real’s 2-0 group-stage win over Ajax.
His only other Champions League appearance that year would come against the same side two months later, coming on in the 82nd minute in a 4-0 Real Madrid win.
After a promising start, an ankle injury would reduce his playing time, with most of his minutes coming from the substitutes’ bench.
After starting the opening league match of the season, Sergio Canales’ next three Real Madrid starts would all come in the Copa del Rey against Segunda Division sides between October 2010 and January 2011.
After this, Canales would begin two more matches during his debut season at the Bernabeu, returning to the starting XI in successive weeks in late April for games against Valencia (6-3) and Real Zaragoza (2-3).
This pair of matches would also count as Canales’ last matches of the 2010-11 season, with the youngster finishing with 15 appearances (6 starts), 0 goals and 1 assist.
After appearing for Spain in the FIFA U-20 World Cup during the summer of 2011, Sergio Canales would find himself loaned out to Valencia for the duration of the 2011-12 season.
Canales would feature in Valencia’s first eleven matches of the season, starting six.
However, just as Canales was beginning to grow into the Valencia first team, a ruptured cruciate ligament suffered in October would put him out of action until the following April.
Upon his return, he would score in league wins over Rayo Vallecano and Real Betis and even play in both legs of Valencia’s Europa League semi-final against Atletico Madrid.
However, a reoccurrence of the earlier injury would end his season prematurely.
Despite an injury-affected season, Valencia would choose to sign the now 21-year-old Sergio Canales permanently.
On 19th July 2012, Canales would leave Real Madrid for £7m, just two years into his initial six-year contract.
After playing just 15 matches in two years in Madrid, injuries would mar Sergio Canales’s time with Valencia. After two full seasons at the Mestalla, Valencia would offload Canales.
The attacking midfielder would finally find a settled home at Real Sociedad in January 2014, the 22-year-old’s fourth club in five years, a run started by his transfer to Real Madrid in the summer of 2010.
Emmanuel Adebayor: 2011
Emmanuel Adebayor has had a nomadic career, turning out for 11 different clubs across 22 years.
These clubs range from major Premier League clubs like Arsenal, Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur to smaller clubs like Crystal Palace and Paraguayan side Club Olimpia.
During his three-season stint at the recently money-rich Manchester City, the Togolese striker would spend five months on loan at Real Madrid during the spring and summer of 2011.
Finding his playing opportunities limited due to the form of Carlos Tevez and the recent signings of Mario Balotelli and Edin Džeko, Jose Mourinho would offer an olive branch to Adebayor to join his team of Galácticos currently fighting on multiple fronts with Pep Guardiola’s Barcelona.
Receiving the No.6 shirt and attempting to break into a forward line already containing Cristiano Ronaldo, Gonzalo Higuain and Karim Benzema, Emmanuel Adebayor would enjoy a reasonably fruitful time at the Bernabeu.
He would eventually score eight times in 22 appearances, including an impressive five goals in 14 La Liga matches, even though he only made nine starts.
Highlights from Adebayor’s time in the Spanish capital include scoring on his first start against Racing Santander on 6th February 2011 and scoring twice against future employers Tottenham in a 4-0 Champions League quarter-final first-leg win on 5th April.
He would also score in another two-legged match, netting a 90th-minute goal in a 2-0 Copa del Rey semi-final second-leg victory over Sevilla.
Finally, Adebayor would end the season in style by scoring a hat-trick in an 8-1 Real Madrid win over Almeria.
However, despite these highlights, Real Madrid chose not to convert Emmanuel Adebayor’s loan into a permanent transfer.
The following season, Manchester City loaned out Adebayor again, this time to Spurs.
Hamit Altıntop: 2011-12
In 2011, Real Madrid manager Jose Mourinho began his summer transfer business by signing two Turkish midfielders from leading Bundesliga clubs.
One was a promising 21-year-old at Bundesliga champions Borussia Dortmund, and the other was 31-year-old Hamit Altıntop.
Before joining Real Madrid, Altıntop had spent the previous four seasons at Bayern Munich, mainly as a bit-part player due to suffering a raft of injuries during his spell.
However, he still managed to rack up 109 appearances for the club, with a significant proportion of these appearances (46) coming in cup competitions and in Europe.
Still, why Jose Mourinho would choose to sign Hamit Altıntop over the likes of Franck Ribery, Arjen Robben, Toni Kroos and Bastian Schweinsteiger is something that only he knows.
In July 2011, Real Madrid signed Hamit Altıntop on a free transfer and a four-year deal following the expiration of his Bayern Munich contract.
On his arrival, the club would issue him with the No.16 shirt, the number vacated by Sergio Canales after being loaned out to Valencia for the season. A good omen.
Continued back trouble would keep Altıntop out of Real Madrid’s early-season matches, and he would have to wait until 27th September for his debut.
This debut would be an 84th-minute substitute in Real Madrid’s 3-0 win over Ajax in the Champions League group stages.
After this cameo appearance, Altıntop’s league debut would not arrive until 15th October, when he would again appear as a substitute in a 4-1 victory over Real Betis.
With two appearances in two months, another month would pass before Altıntop’s third appearance for Real Madrid, appearing as an 86th-minute replacement and scoring a goal in a 6-2 win over Sevilla.
Overall, Hamit Altıntop would make just 12 appearances for Real Madrid during the 2011-12 season.
He would start five of these matches, although three of these starts came in the Copa del Rey.
Even though Altıntop was a right midfielder by trade, all but one of his starts for Real Madrid would come at right-back.
In this position, he would play the full 90 minutes in a 3-1 league win over Real Zaragoza on 25th January and the first leg of a Copa del Rey quarter-final against Barcelona, which Los Blancos would lose 2-1.
The only other highlight of Altıntop’s season would see him play in his regular right midfield position in a 5-2 second-leg win over APOEL Nicosia in the Champions League last-16.
Apart from this, Altıntop would spend most of the season watching from the bench.
On 19th July 2012, just one year into his four-year contract, Real Madrid would sell Hamit Altıntop to Galatasaray for £3.2 million.
Altıntop would spend the next five seasons at the Turkish champions, continuing his bit-part injury-ridden role at Bayern Munich.
Javier Hernández: 2014-15
After making just 12 starts during the 2013-14 season, Javier Hernández started to consider his future at Manchester United.
After being a prominent player during the final years of Alex Ferguson’s managerial tenure, Chicarito would find himself fourth-choice striker behind Wayne Rooney, Robin van Persie and Danny Welbeck under the short-lived administration of David Moyes.
With Louis van Gaal arriving in the summer of 2014 and Manchester United looking to bring Radamel Falcao on loan from Monaco, Hernández would look for a move away from Old Trafford, even temporarily.
On transfer deadline day 2014, Real Madrid would offer him a solution, bringing him to the Spanish capital for the duration of the 2014-15 season.
Despite the change in scenery, Javier Hernández’s situation would not change.
If you didn’t think the Mexican striker would manage to force his way past Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale and Cristiano Ronaldo into the European champions’ starting XI, you would quickly be proven right.
Hernández would attain 33 appearances and score nine goals during a loan spell in Madrid.
However, only 13 of those 33 appearances would come in the starting line-up. In addition, he would make just seven starts in La Liga out of 23 total appearances.
Hernández would debut as a 64th-minute substitute in Real’s 2-1 defeat to Atletico in the Madrid derby on 13th September 2014.
Then, Chicarito would show some of the quality that had first endeared him to Manchester United fans by scoring twice in 13 minutes from the bench in an 8-2 win over Deportivo La Coruna one week later.
On 18th October, he would play 90 minutes, win a penalty and score his third league goal in a 5-0 win over Levante, forming an effective forward partnership with Cristiano Ronaldo.
His next league start would not come until a 3-0 win over Eibar on 11th April 2015, where he would score his fourth La Liga goal.
However, from this point, Javier Hernández would start six of Real Madrid’s final eight league games of the 2014-15 season, scoring 3 goals and contributing 3 assists.
He would also play a key role in Real’s Champions League campaign, scoring the winning goal in a 1-0 quarter-final second-leg victory against Atletico Madrid.
This would be the only goal Hernández would net in eight Champions League appearances that season.
At the end of the 2014-15 season, Real Madrid chose not to make Javier Hernández’s season-long loan into a permanent move.
Upon returning briefly to Manchester United, Javier Hernández would move to Bayer Leverkusen for £10.8m on transfer deadline day 2015.
His late-season form with Real Madrid may have influenced the size of the final fee Leverkusen gave United, but that is just speculation.
Nuri Şahin: 2011-14
The other Turkish midfielder signed by Jose Mourinho in the summer of 2011, joining Hamit Altıntop at the Bernabeu, would be Borussia Dortmund’s Nuri Şahin.
After joining the club at 13 and becoming the Bundesliga’s youngest-ever player at 16 years and 334 days on 6th August 2005, Şahin became a key player for Borussia Dortmund.
In six seasons of senior football, he had made 153 appearances (127 starts) for the Westphalia club, including 135 matches (114 starts) in the Bundesliga.
Under Jurgen Klopp, he had become an ever-present, starting 40 consecutive games in Dortmund’s Bundesliga-winning 2010-11 season until ligament damage ended his season.
Despite the injury, numerous German publications would name Şahin the Bundesliga player of the season for 2010-11.
With all these statistics to his name, Jose Mourinho and Real Madrid would jump at the chance to sign one of the most promising midfielders in European football.
On 1st July 2011, Real Madrid signed Nuri Şahin from Borussia Dortmund for £9 million on a six-year contract.
Şahin would join a midfield containing Xabi Alonso, Lassana Diarra, Sami Khedira and Esteban Granero.
Despite being the new signing, Şahin would play the fewest games out of all four central midfielders, barely cracking double figures in all competitions for the season.
A twisted knee would delay his debut until November 2011, a 67th-minute substitute appearance in Real Madrid’s 7-1 league win over Osasuna.
After this, he would play four further La Liga matches out of a possible 27. After debuting in November, his first league start would not come until a match against Sporting Gijon on 14th April 2012.
With the two teams tied at half-time, Jose Mourinho would replace Nuri Şahin with Karim Benzema. Benzema would then score in a 3-1 Real Madrid win.
Mourinho would repeat the trick against Granada on 15th May, with Xabi Alonso replacing Şahin at half-time with Real Madrid losing 1-0. Madrid would go on to win the match 2-1.
Nuri Şahin’s first official start for Real Madrid would come in the Champions League, playing the full 90 minutes in a 6-2 win over Dinamo Zagreb on 22nd November.
He would also play the whole match in the club’s final Group D game against Ajax two weeks later, in a 3-0 win for Real Madrid.
The Champions League would be the highlight of Nuri Şahin’s season, as the Turkish midfielder would play all but 6 minutes of Real Madrid’s two-legged quarter-final win over APOEL Nicosia.
Apart from this, Şahin’s only other appearances would come in both legs of a Copa del Rey 4th round tie against 3rd-division Pontferradina, with Şahin starting both legs.
After playing 40 matches for Borussia Dortmund the previous season, Nuri Şahin would play just 10 games for Real Madrid during the 2011-12 season, starting eight.
The season would be the height of Nuri Şahin’s Real Madrid career, as he would spend the next two seasons away from the Bernabéu.
The first half of the 2012-13 season would see Şahin on loan at Liverpool. He would start 12 matches during a six-month loan spell, scoring three goals.
After this brief spell, Real Madrid would loan Nuri Şahin back to the club they had bought him from just 18 months earlier, Borussia Dortmund.
Once back home, it was as if Nuri Şahin had never left, as he would return to his position in Dortmund’s defensive midfield and not let it go.
In the summer of 2014, two years into his six-year contract, Real Madrid sold Nuri Şahin back to Borussia Dortmund for £6.3m.
Thomas Gravesen: 2005-06
Midway through the 2004-05 season, armed with a midfield containing David Beckham, Zinedine Zidane and Luis Figo, recently appointed Real Madrid manager Vanderlei Luxemburgo would choose to invest further in the central areas of his team during the January transfer window.
However, those expecting to see Patrick Vieira, Frank Lampard or Michael Ballack walk through the doors of the Bernabeu would be treated to a surprise on New Year’s Day 2005.
On this day, Real Madrid would sign Danish midfielder Thomas Gravesen from Everton for £3 million.
Since joining from Hamburg in the summer of 2000, Gravesen had been a rock in the Everton midfield alongside Lee Carsley, racking up 155 total appearances.
When he left, Everton was challenging in the upper reaches of the Premier League table. Still, even so, the 29-year-old didn’t fit the model of recent Real Madrid signings.
Thomas Gravesen would make his Real Madrid debut as a 68th-minute replacement for Luis Figo in a 3-1 league win over Real Zaragoza on 16th January 2005.
Following his debut, Gravesen would become a fixture in the Real Madrid XI, starting at the defensive tip of Luxemburgo’s diamond midfield with Zidane, Beckham and Figo.
After his debut, Gravesen would start 15 out of 19 La Liga matches, playing the full 90 minutes on eleven occasions.
Even more impressively, Gravesen would play all 210 minutes of Real Madrid’s Champions League last-16 tie with Juventus.
However, despite Real Madrid ending the season without a trophy, Thomas Gravesen had undoubtedly made an impact on his manager and in the Spanish capital.
Thomas Gravesen would start Real Madrid’s first three matches of the 2005-06 season, against Cadiz (2-1) and Celta Vigo (2-3) in La Liga and Lyon in the Champions League (0-3).
However, after two defeats in these three matches, Gravesen would find himself mainly on the bench for the remainder of 2005.
After another period out of the side, Gravesen would begin 2006 by starting 15 out of 17 matches in all competitions.
However, after playing the full 90 minutes in a 1-1 draw with Real Zaragoza in the league on 22nd March, Gravesen would drop out of the starting XI for good, with Guti and Pablo Garcia taking his place in defensive midfield.
Two 11-minute cameos in back-to-back league matches against Deportivo La Coruna (4-0) and Barcelona (1-1) on 26th March and 6th April would signal the final minutes of Thomas Gravesen’s season.
He would finish with 29 appearances during the 2005-06 season, with 20 coming from the start.
During the summer of 2006, new Real Madrid manager Fabio Capello brought in three new midfielders in Emerson, Fernando Gago and Mahamadou Diarra.
These moves would end Thomas Gravesen’s 18-month spell with Los Merengues.
On 1st August 2006, Real Madrid sold Thomas Gravesen to Celtic for £2.7 million, ending his stay at the Bernabeu with a record of 49 matches, starting 38.
Despite being an unusual signing when he first joined, Thomas Gravesen would prove himself worthy of wearing the Real Madrid shirt during a difficult time for the club.
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