The Santiago Bernabéu has a new idol: El Toro Rodríguez. The young Spanish-Uruguayan striker has become Real Madrid’s most exciting appearance in recent times. Alvarowho debuted in Pamplona two weeks ago in the League and had minutes at Anfield, has a lot of goal. So much so that in the 25 minutes that he has played in the League he has generated three goals. Two assists and one goal, the one in the draw against Atlético in the derby.
In Pamplona Carlo Ancelotti brought him onto the field in the 87th minute, enough for the youth squad player to take advantage of the five minutes of extra time to provide two assists. In the first Vincius scored, but the Brazilian had gone offside, and in the second, seconds later, he stole a ball under pressure and served the goal to Marco Asensio.
Record goal in the derby
Against Atlético he gave him more minutes, thirteen plus four off, entering the field heroically for Nacho. The youth squad took advantage of it scoring his first goal with Real Madrid in the 85th minute a spectacular header from a corner to set the tie. A goal that he could hardly celebrate, because Real Madrid was in a hurry to come back from Giménez’s goal. But El Toro celebrated with rage and at the end of the game many of his teammates came up to congratulate him on his debut goalscoring with the first team.
In fact, Álvaro Rodríguez became the youngest player to score in the derby between Real Madrid and Atlético, beating the Argentine Gonzalo Higuaín. His goal was celebrated in the stands and also before the microphones by teammates and coaches. Carlo Ancelotti spared no praise for the striker: “Álvaro has shown all his quality the little he has played, It is a special night for him and for us to think that he can be useful in this part of the season. Next season he will be in the first team squad because he has a quality that few have at his age, he has a significant height, he is a powerful player, he goes well with his head, he handles the ball well. The idea is to have him with the first team and this last stretch of the season will be between us and Castilla. We’ll handle it with Raúl.”
A legend of the Real Madrid striker, such as Emilio Butragueño, currently director of institutional relations for the club, assured that at Real Madrid they have “great hopes for him and we hope this is the beginning of a great career. For him it is a very special. Debut at the Bernabéu and scoring such an important goal. Also, a great goal in which he anticipated himself perfectly”.
Some of his teammates, such as Thibaut Courtois, also celebrated that El Toro made his debut as a scorer: “He is a boy who works very well in training. He gave an assist against Osasuna, today he scores a goal… hopefully it will continue like this.”. Álvaro Rodríguez has dazzled Real Madrid with his punching power and his ambition in the few minutes that he has had in this League.