Varane still has plenty of room for improvement, but he's been impressive for a CB his age. A true diamond in the rough
He did that the day he signed for us. They hailed him as the Next Hierro on their cover page. Anyways, huge prospect. Very neat defender and reminds me of young Nesta. I like such players who makes defending very elegant to watch.
I hope one day he becomes the worlds best defender. Cules can say they have Messi, and we'll say we got our legend Varane. Those stats indeed got me jumping on the Varane hype train.
I was just randomly going through the Real Madrid website, and I uncovered this: Varane has never been called up to represent the French senior squad so far. Making him only the fourth such player from the current squad who has never been a member of a senior national team. The other three are callejon, adan and granero.
He plays for the U21s regularly. Seeing how this time last year he had only played a hand full of mins on a professional level you can expect him to spend some time in the U21s before making the jump to the full squad.
^i'd prefer if he stayed with the under 21's for this year at least. I still feel he's not ready to deal with the pressure of the national team whilst trying to grow here at Madrid. Especially with the euros coming up. If nurtured properly and we don't hasten his development, this guy can become at least a consistent performer.
Answering questions in Spanish already. [ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wH1iX9tCunY"]Varane: "Me gustaría marcar más goles" - YouTube[/ame]
To me, he just looks like a true professional who gets his head down, doesn't moan and just gets on with football. I hope, just hope he becomes for us what Maldini is to Milan in the years to come.
Just brillz, Silky Johnson doing things the right way. I remember another youngun' that didn't set a foot wrong and has since become the embodiment of true Madridsmo....
While that might ultimately prove to be true I'm not sure how you can make this sort of statement as Varane hasn't played as much footy as either of those players nor in games of the magnitude they've played in where the pressure would undoubtedly be higher and the players lack of experience more telling than getting a runout against Granada at home or CL games after the team has comfortably qualified for the knockout stages. All three of them are still just really learning their footballing alphabet, to label one as "better" at this point in their development is a bit premature IMO. Although I will say aesthetically I like Varane's silky, almost stylish approach to playing the CB position better than Jones or Smalling.
I don't think they are learning football alphabets, but they have very little experience. Varane played limited amount of minutes (compared to Jones for example), but he looked very promising. That matters more than him being better than other young talents else where. I hope he gets more playing time, and let's see how he develops.
While i agree, i think there are there are some basic skills that you can judge by watching a player a few times. I don't know what Jones did at Blackburn for Manchester United to pay over 16 million euro for him. He's chasing after every ball, even the ones he should comfortably be playing. Looking into Jones' profile, he is represented by the same guy that sold that Henderson guy to Liverpool for just as much. Smalling looks like a comfortable and a dependable defender from what i've seen.
They both lack a certain air of 'fabulous' that emanates from Varane every time he steps foot on the pitch.
I don't doubt his "fabulousness" (especially since he opted to rid himself of those whack ass braids) just a bit nervous about declaring him "better" than anyone just yet (even Jones) especially since right now criteria folks are using is a bit skewed in his favor.
Varane is much better on the ball than both those players mentioned imo. Defensively he hasn't been tested a lot, but he is still young and if he keeps working hard he'll turn out to be a great player in a few years time.
If he brings back that look, I'm boycotting any nice comments I may have about him, and will simply slate him and his performances, based on that haircut.