The Real Madrid squad vs Real Betis has landed, and it carries one name almost nobody expected to see on it. Sergio Martinez — 19 years old, signed from Racing Santander less than a week ago and earmarked for Castilla — has been handed his first senior call-up by Jose Mourinho for Friday night in Seville.
Los Blancos open matchday four at the Estadio de La Cartuja on Friday 4 September, kick-off 21:00 CEST (20:00 BST). Three games, three wins, top of La Liga — and a first-team list still thin enough that Mourinho has leaned on the academy to fill out his bench.
Real Madrid squad vs Real Betis: four academy names travel
Martinez arrived on 31 August for a reported €3 million, brought in with the B team in mind rather than the first XI. He trained under Mourinho twice this week and, as Marca report, that was enough for an express promotion into the travelling party.
Mourinho had already flagged it at Thursday’s press conference. "The plan is for him to be on the bench tomorrow," he said, in quotes carried by Mundo Deportivo. "He has trained with the first team for two days, nothing more. He is a boy with potential, he has to work, and only he can say. The quality and the intensity here are different."
He is not the only graduate making the trip. Mario Rivas, involved since matchday one, plus Jorge Cestero and Javi Navarro have also been named, per Madrid Universal — four Castilla-based names in a single convocatoria, which is not something this club does by accident.
Seven still unavailable
The reason for the youth influx is the same as it has been since August. Eder Militao, Aurelien Tchouameni, Raul Asencio, Ferland Mendy, Rodrygo, Endrick and Thiago Pitarch are all out, exactly the group flagged in our Betis team news earlier today. Rodrygo and Mendy remain the long-term cases, while Militao and Asencio are working towards mid-September.
That leaves Mourinho shortest in midfield, which is where Martinez’s arrival from Racing suddenly looks less like squad admin and more like insurance. Captain Federico Valverde and Eduardo Camavinga carry the load in Seville; Bernardo Silva and Arda Guler give the shape its variety.
Why this bench matters
Friday is not a standalone fixture. Madrid’s Champions League opener against Inter at the Santiago Bernabeu follows on Tuesday 8 September, and Marca note that Mourinho will be without Camavinga, Guler and Bernardo Silva for it — all three suspended. Three senior midfielders missing four days after a demanding away night in Andalusia sharpens every substitution he makes at La Cartuja.
Which is the quiet logic behind the list. Mourinho is not making up numbers with teenagers for the sake of it; he is protecting legs he will need on Tuesday while handing three or four young Madridistas a matchday they will not forget. If one of them gets minutes in Seville, it will be because the Portuguese judged the moment right, not because he ran out of bodies.
Nine points from nine, an unbeaten start, and a squad list held together with academy thread. La Cartuja will tell us how much that thread can take.
