Mendy Omitted as Mourinho Trusts Teenager Martinez for Champions League
Real Madrid’s Champions League squad list landed with one headline omission. Ferland Mendy is out. A 19-year-old who was supposed to start life in Castilla is in.
It is a ruthless, very Mourinho kind of call.
Mendy out, Martinez in
Madrid have confirmed their 25-man group for the league phase of the Champions League, and Mendy is the most notable casualty. The France international has not played since suffering a muscular injury in his right leg back in May, and his name is missing from the European roster.
Others in the treatment room have been spared. Eder Militao and Rodrygo Goes both keep their places despite their own issues, a clear sign of how the staff view their importance. Mendy does not receive the same protection.
His absence opens the door for Sergio Martinez, the €3 million signing from Racing Santander. Madrid activated his release clause with Castilla in mind, a long-term project rather than an immediate solution. That plan has already been torn up.
Martinez has impressed Mourinho in first-team training, enough to jump from reserve recruit to Champions League squad member in a matter of weeks. The teenager joins 11 other youth prospects on the list, but his promotion carries a different weight. This is not a token gesture. It is a response to a crisis.
A changing left flank
Leaving Mendy out also underlines how quickly the hierarchy has shifted on Madrid’s left side. Once an automatic pick when fit, he has slipped down the pecking order at the Santiago Bernabeu.
The arrivals of Marc Cucurella and Alvaro Carreras have reshaped that flank. With two new options available, Mourinho feels secure enough to navigate the group stage without his injured left-back. The message is blunt: Madrid can live without Mendy in Europe, at least for now.
The surplus at full-back stands in stark contrast to what is happening in midfield.
Midfield stretched to breaking point
In the centre of the pitch, Mourinho is running out of bodies. A cluster of absences has forced him to rip up his initial allocation and rethink the balance of the squad.
Bernardo Silva, one of the marquee summer arrivals, will not be available for the opener against Inter on September 8. His suspension stems from last season, when he was sent off for a deliberate handball against Madrid while captaining Manchester City. His European debut for Los Blancos will have to wait.
He is not alone on the unavailable list. Arda Guler and Eduardo Camavinga are also suspended for the clash at the Bernabeu, stripping Madrid of creativity and control in one stroke. Aurelien Tchouameni is expected to miss out with a muscle problem, while Thiago Pitarch remains a serious doubt.
The result is a midfield department stretched to its limits on the eve of facing the Italian champions. Mourinho, never shy of a selection gamble, has turned to Martinez not just as a prospect to nurture, but as cover he badly needs.
What began as a developmental signing has become a tactical necessity.
Fast track to the first team
Martinez’s rise has been rapid. Signed from Santander with La Liga experience already on his CV, he arrived as a teenager who knew the pace and physicality of top-flight football, even if only in brief flashes.
Those minutes now matter. They give Mourinho just enough reassurance to push him into the European frame. The Portuguese coach has seen enough in training to trust his temperament as well as his technique.
Before Inter come to town, though, Madrid return to domestic duty. A La Liga meeting with Real Betis offers a more natural stage for Martinez’s first steps in white. He could make his senior debut for the club there, a softer landing than being thrown straight into a Champions League night.
From Betis to Inter in the space of a few days: that is the path that suddenly lies in front of him.
Inter looming, questions mounting
Once the Betis game is out of the way, all eyes will turn to Inter’s visit. The European opener will probe every weakness in Madrid’s midfield depth, exposing any cracks in Mourinho’s emergency plan.
If the suspensions and injuries bite as expected, Martinez will move from name on a list to genuine option on the bench, perhaps even a solution on the pitch. A few weeks ago he was a Castilla signing. Now he stands one selection away from the Champions League spotlight.
Mendy watches from the outside as a teenager takes his place in the squad. For Madrid, and for Mourinho, the bigger question is simple: can a patched-up midfield, propped up by a 19-year-old, carry them through the first test of another European campaign?
