Vinny's 200: The future is here and it's bright

Tonight (21) Real Madrid players continue their competition in La Liga against Valencia.

Real has a game in hand and is eight points behind leaders Barcelona, ​​so tonight's meeting is important for Carlo Ancelotti's team. But the game is also important for Valencia, which has only one point more than Cadiz, which is in the danger zone. Also, on Monday, the "bats" terminated their cooperation with the previous coach Đenar Gatuz.

And tonight's match will also be important for one Real player. The young Brazilian, Vinicius will play his 200th game in the shirt of the famous club, which is an impressive performance for a player who is only 22 years old.

Vinicius signed a contract with Real Madrid in 2017. He was 18 years old at the time of signing, and Real paid Flamengo 46 million euros for this transfer, which, after the transfer of Neymar to Barcelona, ​​was the most expensive sale of a player from Brazil. After signing, Vinicius stayed at Flamengo for another year as a loan player from Madrid.

A year later, in July 2018, the Brazilian arrived in Madrid and then took on jersey number 28. He made his debut in September, in the city derby with Atlético, and a month later in the Cup, he was in the starting line-up of the Merengues for the first time. He scored his first goal on November 3, ten minutes after coming on in a match against Valladolid.

Real's plan was to make Vinicius a footballer who would be the main player of Madrid in the future. And the future came quickly. On March 1, 2020, the attacker scored the first goal of his career in El Clasico and won the title with Real in that corona season.

The following year, he continued with excellent performances, so in the first match of the quarter-finals of the Champions League against Liverpool, he scored two goals and paved the way to the semi-finals, where Chelsea was better than Real.

If there is one competition that turns Real players into great stars and club legends, it is the Champions League. All the great players of Real - from Alfredo di Stefano to Cristiano Ronaldo, Raul, Zinedine Zidane, Karim Benzema have left a big mark in the European Champions Cup and the Champions League, and that is also the case with Vinny. The Brazilian continued that tradition and scored the only goal in the final against Liverpool last season and brought his team the 14th title in history in Paris.

The Champions League is the pinnacle of club football, but in his career with Real, Vinicius also won La Liga (2020 and 2022), the European Super Cup (2022) and the Club World Cup in 2018.

In a few days, he has the opportunity to win the Club World Cup for the second time in his career, and the only trophy he is missing with Real is the King's Cup. The last time Madrid won the trophy in that competition was in 2014. This season, Vinicius has a chance to win it, since Real is active in that competition and plays against Barcelona in the semi-finals.

Another important fact about Vinius is its resistance to injuries. It is known that he is an explosive, fast player, who invests every atom of energy from the first minute to the last. He suffered the only injury in the Real jersey in the round of 2019 match against Ajax in XNUMX, when he injured his knee, which kept him out of action for two months. Counting his stay in both Flamengo and Real, Vinicius had no problems with muscle injuries. In Real's jersey, he missed one game due to a stomach virus, and two due to the coronavirus.

At the moment, Vinicius is one of Real's main players, along with Curto, Modric, Benzema and Valverde. The important fact is that he is only 22 years old, that his contract with Real expires in 2024, but that no one thinks that he will leave the club. When the veterans, like Modric and Benzema, leave the stage, then Vini will be the main star of Madrid - both in marketing and on the field.

The arrival of Vinicius and his compatriot Rodrigo is only part of Real's project dedicated to young players. The same path that Vinicius crossed will be crossed by another Brazilian - Endrik. He is 16 years old and has signed a contract with Real, but he will not join Madrid until he turns 18. Until then, he will stay in Palmeiras and learn from the example of Vinicius how to become a star in the biggest club in the world.