Fernando Redondo : El Príncipe

10 min readAug 9, 2023

To be among the most important players in the team , you should not be basic rather you should be everything . The ones that are capable of anything from ordering the team to distributing the game . This is none other than the no.5 , not the numbering of no.5 as we all know but the actual no.5 the sociological midfielder, the positional one and the caudillosque leader of the team and center of the field.

Sociological midfielder is the one who ,””starts the attack, almost always indirectly or directly and the one who leads the recovery . alone in his the area , he asks for it , keeps it and passes it on. He escapes the pressure , advances lines , offers support , solves. He adds to the creation and verticalizes, or changes front with a beautiful diagonal at the end . or he drives out , eliminating rivals and pressure lines , dragging marks and creating space ,and attacks and arrives . and in addition he temporizes the rival attack , anticipates it , occupies the empty spaces and supports his teammates in pressing.” well depicted by Kundera [1]

Sociological midfielder is the midfielder configured of attitude , look and personality. “ manliness and a noble authoritarianism are characteristic attitude as well as an ‘almost feminine appearance ‘ care and of course his absolute patronage of the ball on the court.” wrote David Mata [2]

The archtype no.5 with luminous attributes that graced the eyes of spectators and painted the field from Argentine Juniors , Tenerife , Real Madrid and Ac Milan and the colors of Argentina is none other than Fernando Redondo “ El Príncipe “ .

Seeing this player at the Bernabeu was a feast for the eyes. He floated, he “slid” with light movements and a ball handling never seen on any other player, the Prince prevailed marvelously on the pitch with his elegant suit and shoes. If you had a chance to see him , you couldn’t believe if this guy was really playing football or painting on the field. An underrated player in football history.

He was one of those players who in addition to playing well knew what they were going to do before the ball reached him. A football poet who played with tuxedo. The brain of the midfield , as you can imagine at the time when he was playing for Tenerife , he was called a madman as compared to Maradona and he really deserved it. He attacked intelligently with clear elaboration of the game such that when he decided to advance he associated much more with walls, dribbling and short passes .He was among the most enjoyable defensive midfielder to watch who played with so much class , too skilled for him to play at a steering wheel of which genuinely he did much more than required at the position.

He was a super crack that played at different speed, tremendous elegance and technique , broke easily the defensive line by his silly filtered passes , never goes on the ground to recover the ball but he will make a clear touch to take the ball from his opponent . You could never understand whether he was a no.5 or no.10 because he played like a 5 but looked like a 10 (a mixed midfielder ). Why ? Because with the ball he looked like a classic , elegant and technical 10 .

A seasoned containment midfielder with a soul of ten and the tactical intelligence of a modern interior to know when to touch and when to pass: instead of doing the easy thing and touching it to the back , he sought to dribble , pause and pass it vertically so as to vigorously generate dangerous attacks. He seemed to be swimming the court with his arms and not only was a possessor of unique elegance and technique but also a privileged physique. “the practicality and aggression of the cinco, and the effervescent creativity of the pibe.” wrote Christopher Weir of Total football times.[3]

This exquisite, crazy, stellar , monstrous and left handed poet midfielder of the 90s played with a great rhythm dictation/great vision of the game/game director , mastered well in interception/anticipation , beautiful pass execution/generation and distribution , great physical strength and tenacity , pausa , more defensive awareness , great recover-er , initiator of attacks , unpredictable you will never know where he will go and not just cadence but with pace and short dribbling .

It was impossible to quit the ball due to crazy numbers on retention of the ball/ holding the ball which was practically impossible to lose the ball . He had the best means of containment such that not even with a judge’s order can you get the ball out of this rolls Royce of midfield.“he looked more like a bride on a wedding day, pledging everlasting love to the ball at his feet.” wrote Christopher Weir.[4]

Redondo vs Berg
on the streets some still say Berg is still doing therapy for that nutmeg. Redondo and his famous dribble of “El tacón de Dios” or “taconazo” unforgettable and unrepeatable . It was an angelic back-heel that defined Real Madrid triumph over Manchester United as they say “the passing of the baton from Manchester united to Real Madrid “ .
There are a lot of videos and articles which shows and elaborates this artistic work of Redondo but none describes it much better than Ultimoumo article written by Emmanuele Atturo . This is just a short masterpiece he wrote about Redondo’s moment of eternity , ”The moment that would define the game, and then his entire career, will come in the 52nd minute. Real Madrid are already 2–0 ahead and are practically certain of qualification for the Champions League semi-finals.
Redondo receives a simpering ball from Savio, a scavetto with the left winger who failed United’s pressure with lazy cunning. Redondo can turn the field towards the United goal: Morientes and Raul run next to him, at different distances. There is a moment in which Redondo can pass the ball to Morenties and maybe launch himself into space, or he can concentrate to narrow the field and start letting technique talk. Instead, for some reason, he stalls on the left wing, where he is well marked by Berg.
The fact is that Redondo’s football came from the feet and not from the head. If he seemed to have rational control over the competitiveness of a soccer match, it was because he was able to exercise his own particular form of soccer intelligence, which was born from his body. A shape halfway between instinct and actual thought, which at that moment led him to make the least rational choice. Redondo accelerates and slows down by stroking the ball with his left field, until no one expected what was to come.
In which the thought of the twenty-two on the pitch and the millions of spectators in the stadium and tuned in was far from the territories where Redondo’s play would take them shortly after. He hits the ball with his left heel, maybe he wants to send it to the defender’s side, but he even ends up making him tunnel. Watching the images again and again, the window of time in which the ball could have passed between Berg’s legs opened and closed again in the blink of an eye, and Redondo slipped into it with a kind of magical foresight.” the full text could be found here [5].Sir Alex Ferguson‘s comment after the game ,”What’s wrong with that player, magnets in his feet?”.

The origin of the name “El Principe”.

Fernando Redondo, the Maradona of the “5”, the prince “el principe” baptized by Diego Simeone was a player with enormous talent and character who understood the game as a whole . He played from the back to front and vice versa , from right to left and vice versa, elegant in distributing the ball , managing the rhythms of the game at will , intense even if he didn’t run as people are used to and constantly changing the dynamics in his side’s favor and taking advantage of the enormous intelligence he had to manage every thread and plot of the pitch. He appeared , he arrived , he was there , he played and went , he played and stayed but always with the ball at his left foot which was like silk as a beacon. The best place where the ball could live. He stuck to it like a limpet.

Which player of the current generation has same characters as him?

Regarding comparison of Redondo to any other player of the current generation to the likes of Busquets , Camavinga and even Paredes isn’t fair for a such talented and elegant player as him . In his tenure at Tenerife, Real Madrid , Argentina or Ac Milan despite having a little time to play due to injury he left Details in Abundance . That is everywhere from Camp Nou , Munich , Old Trafford , champion league finals , world cup etc..

Comments from journalists , people who have watched him and his admirers.

“ I have seen in my life he recovered and attacked and went to get the ball and millimeter passes that he shot forward , there are no words to define him. I don’t understand how he is not among the ten best players in history but it is because he was not interested in journalism and marketing . He did not need that by playing wonderfully for those who like good football ”,wrote a 63 years old Antonio Rocca.
Simon Kupers’ comment in The Guardian newspaper on Redondo before the Uefa Champions League final between Real Madrid vs Valencia.
“….‘Real Madrid have been playing fairly badly to very badly all year,’ said Johan Cruyff in March. ‘I don’t think there is a team in the world where the midfield loses so many balls. You can’t count how many Redondo loses.’
Redondo is often called the master of the one-touch. “I was fascinated with him. To everything that was assumed, that he went one step beyong the others , he added being a Tactically perfect player”, said his former coach Fabio Capello. But when his team-mates are not moving, he can appear helpless. He lacks acceleration, is often carrying injuries, and sometimes seems not to care. Then he becomes the master of the two or three-touch, passing needlessly to defenders, slowing the game down….
First, it must be said that humiliating United’s Henning Berg is a realistic proposition. It has been done before, usually by Berg himself. But Redondo defined the art. Sprinting with Berg to the goal-line, he back-heeled the ball through the Norwegian’s legs, collected it and passed to Raúl who scored Real’s third goal. Later Rinus Michels, the authoritarian former manager of Holland, was asked about that back-heel. Surely he would never have tolerated it? ‘That boy,’ said Michels, ‘would never have heard anything about it from me.’
Alex Ferguson noted that all loose balls that night had seemed to fall to Redondo. ‘What does this player have in his boots?’ Ferguson asked. ‘A magnet?’ Redondo is indeed more than a play-maker — at his best, he hoovers the midfield.”[6]

The precocious boy , this is what he said when interviewed by Daniel Balmaceda[7],”Skilled, talented, with character. A winning player who overcomes difficult moments. Intelligent, knows how to read the game.” He further gushed and cemented about his love for the role of 5 when he replied to Diego Berlinsky[8] ,“It is a position from which you have a very important vision of your team and the game. There are times when you have to slow down, and others to deepen and accelerate. The 5 gives defensive balance to the team and contributes to the elaboration of the game. It seems to be a key position.” The rest was history architectured by ‘el Principe’ in the midfield court.

When Juan Sasturain was interviewed together with Dolina[8] , the latter asked him ,”Armemos el equipo sin gente viva… Si no, siempre aparecen los amigos que te hinchan las pelotas: “Che, no te acordaste de mí…”. A ver… A Cortázar debemos darle un lugar, de 5. Y alguno más clásico… ¿Sarmiento? ¡Un defensivo! Que vaya al lateral de 4. Almafuerte, el izquierdo.” and Juan answered ,”Cortázar sí, un 5 tipo Redondo. No le pidas marca…” and later on went to change Cortazar for Arlt ,” Cortázar de 9 y Arlt de 5". referencing both Arlt and Cortazar to Redondo is something not to be underestimated because they all apply unconventional approach to their field ,artistic naturally expression in their work , attention to detail (Details in abundance) and would take risks upon solving different problems that arose in their field.