Marcos Llorente

Real Madrid

Born in Madrid, Llorente joined Real Madrid's youth setup in 2008, aged 13. In July 2014, after impressing with the Juvenil squad, he was promoted straight to the reserves by manager Zinedine Zidane.

On 24 August 2014, Llorente made his senior debut, starting in a 2–1 away loss against Atlético Madrid B in the Segunda División B. He appeared in 25 matches during the campaign, totalling 1,637 minutes of action.

Llorente spent the 2015 pre-season with the first team, appearing in friendlies against Manchester City, Inter Milan and Vålerenga. He made his professional – and La Liga – debut on 17 October of that year, coming on as a second-half substitute for Mateo Kovačić in the 3–0 home win over Levante.

On 10 August 2016, Llorente was loaned to Alavés for the season. On 10 September, he featured the full 90 minutes in a 2–1 victory at Barcelona.

On 23 September 2017, Llorente's contract was extended until 2021. He made one appearance in that campaign's UEFA Champions League, when Madrid won their third consecutive and 13th overall title in the tournament.

Llorente had played just 11 minutes in 2018–19 until late November, when Casemiro dropped out with an ankle injury. Interim coach Santiago Solari handed the former his first starts as a defensive midfielder, and he scored his first competitive goal for the team on 22 December, the second in the 4–1 defeat of Al Ain in the final of the FIFA Club World Cup to earn him player of the match honours.

At the start of 2019, Llorente was sidelined with adductor problems. During his recovery, Solari was replaced by Zidane, who preferred to use Federico Valverde in the holding midfielder role; additionally, Zidane stated that the player needed "more first-team minutes" in order to improve.