A week alone in a hotel
The other academy kids lived together, went to class together, trained together. Pedri got a hotel room. That detail, more than anything else, is what he remembers about his week on trial at Real Madrid, described a few hours ago to The Players’ Tribune.
He was barely a teenager, just off the plane from the Canary Islands, with his father alongside him in Madrid. The verdict did not take long.
“After a week, they sent me home. It just wasn’t for me. Honestly, it brought me back down to earth. It’s not nice to go home and see your friends again when everyone knows it didn’t work out,” the Spain midfielder said.
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His family thought it was hilarious
The flight home went better than he feared. The Pedri household has been Barca for generations, and his grandfather ran one of the biggest Barca supporters’ clubs on the islands. What his relatives said when he walked through the door has since become family folklore.
“Don’t worry, your grandfather would never have let you play for Real Madrid. He was probably praying, and God made it snow that day!”
A few years on, the actual dream arrived. Las Palmas to Camp Nou, and then straight into the middle of the Catalan midfield.
Seven days of assessment, one generational miss
Pedri is 23, a world champion with Spain, and one of the most heavily used players at Barcelona. Hansi Flick has given him the armband at points this season, alongside Raphinha. He runs the team most weeks.
Real Madrid looked at him for seven days and passed. Academy recruitment is built out of near misses like this one, but few of them get retold by the player himself, and fewer still involve the two clubs on either side of El Clasico.
Barca host Feyenoord tonight in the Champions League. Pedri settled that score a long time ago.
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