With Barcelona’s 1–0 win over Celta Vigo on Wednesday night, the Catalan club restored their nine-point lead over Real Madrid in La Liga with just six gameweeks left.
Barring a late and very dramatic turn in the title race, it appears as though the trophy will be going to the Camp Nou for successive seasons.
With Champions League football no longer a concern for Madrid either, morale has taken a hit at the Bernabéu, as a first trophyless season since 2021 beckons. Manager Álvaro Arbeloa has continually stressed the need to finish the campaign strongly for the fans, though his own days at the club appear to be numbered.
As the final month and a half of the season threatens to fizzle out without much fanfare, there are, however, several Real Madrid stars with plenty to play for in their remaining outings.
1. Andriy Lunin
“Every match in a Real Madrid shirt is an honor,” the Ukrainian posted on social media after the win over Alavés.
How many more he gets remains to be seen, with Thibaut Courtois nearing recovery from injury.
Back in the 2023–24 campaign, Lunin proved invaluable as he filled for Courtois on the road to Champions League glory. However, this season, he flailed in the quarterfinal exit to Bayern Munich and has yet to keep a clean sheet in any of the nine full matches he’s played in all competitions.
With Youth League hero Javi Navarro and the highly rated Fran González breathing down his neck, the now 27-year-old Lunin could do with some strong displays to remind people why he deserves his spot in the roster.
2. Dani Carvajal
These are almost certainly Carvajal’s final weeks as a Real Madrid player. A glorious career, which has featured 27 trophies, is coming to end in a way no Madridista would have wanted.
After being made club captain last summer, the stage was set for one last dance for the 34-year-old right back as he entered the final year of his contract.
However, lingering injury issues following his return from an ACL tear have seen him reduced to a frustrated bit-parter, with Trent Alexander-Arnold now established as first choice in the games that matter.
Entering the final stretch of the season, Carvajal—who earned a standing ovation for his display in March’s Madrid derby—will be desperate for minutes, with his spot in the Spain’s World Cup team also insecure.
Whether he gets much chance to impress national team head coach Luis de la Fuente before the end of the season another matter.
Speaking after the win over Alavés, with Carvajal only a second-half sub, Álvaro Arbeloa said coolly: “I'm thinking about what's best for my team.”
3. Trent Alexander-Arnold
Like Carvajal, Alexander-Arnold will have one eye on the summer’s World Cup as the domestic season enters its final throes.
The former Liverpool right back has never been a favorite of England manager Thomas Tuchel, who has continually picked other options over Alexander-Arnold.
It may prove too late to win over Tuchel, who was in attendance for Madrid’s Champions League exit to Bayern Munich, but if Madrid’s number 12 were to put in the kind of eye-catching displays he is capable of in the coming weeks, the general clamor to see him included on the plane to North America would go through the roof.
4. Álvaro Carreras
As it stands, Madrid simply have too many left backs.
Ferland Mendy’s fitness issues have prevented him from taking ownership of the position, while Fran García has never really looked like more than a backup option. Arriving at Madrid last summer, Carreras—whose attention-grabbing spell at Benfica included going toe-to-toe with Lamine Yamal in the Champions League—had the chance to inherit the left back role and lock it down as his own. That hasn’t really happened. Yet.
Carreras has, on occasion, looked worryingly suspect defensively in his debut campaign—never more so than when he was torn to shreds by Michael Olise in the Champions League quarterfinal first leg.
Madrid are more likely to shed left backs than sign more competition for Carreras this summer, but he could still do with a strong end to the season to win over the doubters and show why the club bet big on the return of the former youth teamer.
5. Eduardo Camavinga
It may already be too late for Camavinga to convince the powers that be that he deserves to stay, but he might at least increase his number of suitors ahead of the summer transfer window.
Now into his fifth season at the Bernabéu, the 23-year-old French midfielder has failed to develop into the all-action, game-controlling player he was supposed to be. Who’s to blame for that exactly is unclear, but a parting of ways now seems inevitable—especially in the wake of his game-changing sending off in the defeat to Bayern.
That was not his only high-profile error this season, with Arbeloa calling out the former Rennes star for switching off mentally in the recent defeat to Mallorca.
Some solid displays in the coming weeks might help convince the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United or Paris Saint-Germain that there is still a supreme talent there to be mined.
6. Franco Mastantuono
At just 18 years old, Mastantuono is at risk of becoming Madrid’s forgotten man.
The Argentine attacking midfielder’s much-hyped arrival and promising early performances under Xabi Alonso quickly faded, while he has been reduced to cameos off the bench under Arbeloa—not trusted in the league or Europe.
The low point of his maiden campaign with a petty red card in March’s home defeat to Getafe for swearing at the referee, after which Arbeloa said: “we cannot have this type of behavior.”
A summer loan move to gain valuable first-team experience has been mooted, but there are still as many as six opportunities for the youngster to show he is able to handle the heat in the pressure cooker that is Madrid.
7. Kylian Mbappé
The Frenchman’s future at Real Madrid is not in doubt. However, there are still issues to resolve and fans to win over.
Madrid are yet to win a major trophy with Mbappé in the team, and there is a growing narrative that, for all his goals, Los Blancos simply function better as an attacking unit without him in the lineup.
Mbappé was jeered despite scoring in the 2-1 over Alavés and still needs to show that he can find synergy with (or at least not stifle) the team’s other superstar talents in Vinicius Junior and Jude Bellingham.
The trio linked up to devastating effect for Mbappé’s goal in the second leg against Bayern, but moments like that have been all too infrequent.
On a more selfish level, Mbappé will also be very eager to see off competition from Vedat Muriqi to claim this season’s Pichichi Trophy—becoming the first man to win the honor two years in a row since Lionel Messi in 2021.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Seven Real Madrid Players With Points to Prove in Final Few Weeks of 2025–26.
