Take Kubo is on his way to being one of Real Madrid's failed signings. Signed by the whites in June 2019 when he was a promise of Japanese football with a past at La Masía, the young Japanese has not found a place in these seasons at the Bernabeu and chains loan after loan, from which after each one he leaves a little more devalued. Kubo is now about to close a loan for one season at Real Sociedad.
The agreement seems like a matter of days and if it hasn't arrived sooner it's because the San Sebastian club would have preferred a purchase rather than a transfer, chastened by what happened with Martin Odegaard. The Norwegian signed for two seasons but Madrid could take him away for little money after the first, which he did to the chagrin of Real. Odegaard did not triumph at Real Madrid either and has ended up in the Premier.
In the case of Kubo, the fact that he occupies a non-EU position plays against him (the Japanese could only get it after ten years of residence or if he marries a Spanish woman) and Madrid has them covered at the moment with Militão, Rodrygo Goes and Vinícius. Of all of them in Valdebebas they trust that Vinícius can have dual nationality throughout this coming season.
With Kubo, Madrid promised them very happy. The Japanese had to leave the Barça discipline, where he had arrived in 2011, due to the FIFA sanction and after a year without playing in 2015 he returned to Japan to play for Tokyo FC, from where Madrid signed him for two million, a price that in that summer of 2019 seemed like a bargain.
Although Madrid sold him as a signing for Castilla, the Japanese made the preseason with the first team, where he left good details and the white club preferred to transfer him to a First like Mallorca rather than leave him at 18 years old in Second B.
In that first assignment, in the 2019-20 season, Kubo went from more to less in a fairly veteran team, very defensive and that ended up going down to Second. He played 35 games, scored four goals and provided another four assists.
Everything that came after was for the worse. In the following season Kubo started on loan at Villarreal, where Unai Emery ignored him. He played few minutes in thirteen games and in the winter market he went to the Coliseum, where he participated in another 18 games and scored at least one goal.
Last season Kubo returned to Mallorca for a second loan, in which things did not go well for him either. He played in 28 games in a team that flirted all the time with relegation and changed coaches to save the disaster. Aguirre replaced Luis García Plaza on March 24. But neither with one nor with another Kubo was a fixed player, being used rather as a revulsive.
Madrid sources point out that the club still does not want to part with a footballer who, at 21, they believe has a lot to say. They believe that sooner or later the Japanese will explode as a player because he has a talent for it. They remember that Vinícius also offered many doubts in his first two years and they are not willing to sell Kubo at a loss. the options for Real Sociedad go right now through an outright assignment or a sale with a guaranteed purchase option at a low price. More or less the same thing that was done with Odegaard.
