Today (Monday) a new debate regarding Real Madrid’s goalkeeping position opens up. Keylor Navas and Kiko Casilla are the protagonists…for the time-being. At least until it is known whether David de Gea will arrive in Madrid this summer or not. Casilla landed in Melbourne at 8:25am (Melbourne time, 12:25am in Spain) on Monday morning in order to directly incorporate himself among his new team-mates on this tour. And so begins his fight with the Costa Rican for the starting berth which has been left vacant by Iker Casillas.
Navas no longer enjoys that position with a certain privilege that he had after the departure of the former Madrid captain. And, in addition, he has seen the competition for the challenge of being Benítez’s man between the posts increase with the arrival of the Catalan. Curiously, both players were on the pitch when Madrid beat Espanyol 4-1 at the Power8 Stadium on May 17.
This is the third debate regarding the goalkeeping position that has been generated after Casillas’ 10-year hegemony as the undisputed No.1. An undisputed starting role that first crumbled under José Mourinho in 2012 before it was followed by an injury he sustained at the start of 2013.
The first rivalry was the one that pitted Diego López against Casillas. It lasted for a year and a half and it was the debate that generated the most controversy. Carlo Ancelotti defined it as an “anomalous situation”: Casillas played in the Copa del Rey and the Champions League, while López played in La Liga. López left last summer and Navas arrived. The heat of the debate was minimal, at least for Ancelotti, who modified his debate: Casillas played in La Liga and the Champions League, and Navas was handed the Copa del Rey matches. The embers of the Mourinho supporters continued to attack the captain, and the club started to push him towards leaving. Now, Navas and Casilla start a new cycle, but they might not end up being Benítez’s final pair of goalkeepers…