Mutiu Adepoju reveals why his Real Madrid first-team dream never happened

Former Super Eagles midfielder Mutiu Adepoju has opened up on why he never made it into the first team of Real Madrid, Afrik-Foot reports.

Adepoju joined Real Madrid’s reserve side, Castilla, in 1989 after a strong showing at the 1989 FIFA U-20 World Cup with Nigeria, where he scored three goals and helped the Flying Eagles finish second, after they were defeated by Portugal in the final of the tournament.

Despite spending about three years with the B team, a senior team breakthrough never came for the Super Eagles legend, who could have become the first Nigerian player to feature for the first-team of the record European champions.

Mutiu Adepoju opens up on failed Real Madrid first-team chance

Nigerian legend Mutiu Adepoju enjoyed most of his playing career in the Spanish La Liga, and despite amassing over 100 appearances, he never made one for the senior team of Real Madrid.

Reflecting on why he never made the cut for the first team, Adepoju explained that competition and strict squad rules at the time made things difficult, as Real Madrid could only register a limited number of foreign players, and the senior squad already had established stars occupying those slots.

“I was in Real Madrid’s second team, Castilla, and in 1992, during the season, Hugo Sánchez was injured, and they wanted me to come into the team”, the Super Eagles legend revealed as shared by onejoblessboy via X.

“They could only have four foreigners signed in the team, and they already had four… like Sánchez, Gheorghe Hagi, Robert Prosinečki, and Ricardo Rocha and I was in the second team playing and doing very well.

“When Hugo Sánchez had an injury, they wanted to bring me to substitute so that I could play until the end of the season.”

However, just when the opportunity seemed to be coming, an injury he suffered while playing for the Castilla side dented his chances.

“But unfortunately, in the league that I played for the second team, I went to have a shoulder injury. So that was how I couldn’t get into the team”, Adepoju added.

Looking back, Adepoju believes things would likely have turned out differently under today’s rules, where foreign player restrictions no longer limit opportunities the way they did back then.

“Assuming it is now that everybody could play, right from all the times I was scoring goals in the second team, I would have been in the first team”, he concluded.

Adepoju later left Real Madrid in 1992 after a managerial change and moved on to other Spanish clubs, including Racing Santander and Real Sociedad, where he built a solid La Liga career with over a century of appearances.