An Endrick Brazil call-up was not the most obvious way for the striker’s season to finally get moving, but it is the one he has been handed. Carlo Ancelotti named the Real Madrid forward in his 26-man squad on Wednesday night for friendlies against Australia and India, a public vote of confidence in a player who has still not made a competitive appearance for Los Blancos this season, as reported by Mundo Deportivo.
The Endrick Brazil call-up comes with a message attached
“I think Endrick will be an important player for the future of the national team,” Ancelotti said as he read out the list. From a coach mid-rebuild, that is a deliberate line rather than a throwaway one. Sixteen of the 26 players named were not part of the group that went out of the World Cup in the round of 16 against Norway, and eight of them are in line for their debuts. Endrick was in that World Cup squad and did not make the impact many expected. He has survived the clearout anyway.
Ancelotti was explicit about why. “In the last year we tried a lot of centre-forwards, but I think the situation is now very clear to everyone. We have a couple of very strong young players and we have to follow their evolution,” he said. “Besides Endrick we have other young players who are doing well, as well as others who are not on this list. We are very well covered in terms of attackers.” Competition, in other words — but competition Endrick is inside rather than outside.
A Real Madrid season that has not started yet
The oddity of all this is that the 20-year-old joins up with Brazil on the back of nothing. Physical problems carried over from pre-season have kept him out of every official Real Madrid fixture so far, and by the time he was available again the pecking order had moved on without him. José Mourinho got him back into the squad for the Champions League opener against Inter Milan, alongside Aurélien Tchouaméni and Thiago Pitarch, as Marca reported — we covered that squad list at the time. He did not get on.
That he is at the club at all is Mourinho’s doing. Endrick stayed at the Santiago Bernabéu this summer at the manager’s express request, despite significant loan and permanent interest, and the Italian market has not gone away: AC Milan are plotting a January return for exactly that reason. On paper, Endrick is now competing with Yan Diomande and Carlos Espí to be the first attacking change Mourinho reaches for.
Ancelotti has been watching from close range
The Brazil boss, who managed Real Madrid across two spells before taking the national job, has not been guessing about the fitness picture. He was at Valdebebas last week to see the club’s Brazilian contingent and check in person on the recoveries of Rodrygo and Éder Militão, both long-term absentees — a visit we reported at the time. Whatever Ancelotti saw of Endrick’s condition on that trip, it did not put him off.
What the call-up actually gives Mourinho
Two friendlies against Australia and India are not the Bernabéu, but they are minutes, and minutes are the one thing Endrick cannot currently get in Madrid. A striker who has spent a month rebuilding rather than playing does not sharpen up in training alone. If he returns from the international window having played, Mourinho inherits a forward closer to usable than the one who sat unused against Inter.
There is a flip side, and Madridistas know it well enough. Long flights and friendly football carry their own risk for a player who has only just cleared a muscular problem. Los Blancos have their finishing under scrutiny as it is; a fit, confident No. 9 would be useful.
For now the call-up is what it looks like: a national-team coach telling a young centre-forward the door is still open, at the precise moment his club season has yet to begin. Endrick’s task is the same either way. Play, and the rest of it — Milan, minutes, the pecking order — tends to sort itself out.
