La Fábrica Graduate Gonzalo García is the Real Thunderstorm at the Club World Cup
In a tournament built for global brands, a boy from Real Madrid's academy rewrites the narrative—and the results.
La Fábrica has been a conveyor belt of strikers, but few as unambiguously home-grown as Gonzalo García. Born in Madrid in 2004, he entered Valdebebas at ten after sharp spells with SEK and Jarama Race, and even a season-long family detour to Mallorca in 2018 could not loosen the bond: when his parents returned, he walked straight back into Real’s Infantil A, first as a winger and occasional full-back before being nudged inside.
The apprenticeship was long but linear: by 2022 he was Juvenil A’s reference point and, a year later, he equalled Mariano Díaz’s Castilla record with 25 league goals—proof that every rung of the ladder, from Under-10s to the brink of the first team, had been climbed inside the club walls.
The defining snapshot, insiders say, came in the 2023 Copa de Campeones final. After switching off at a corner and seeing Betis equalise, García walked into the dressing-room, promised to repair the damage and then scored twice in the last ten minutes to seal a 3-1 win and Álvaro Arbeloa’s domestic treble.
The episode spread through Valdebebas: coaches talk of a forward who turns five-a-side drills into blood sport, and team-mates recall how that Betis brace—equal parts accountability and audacity—convinced Raúl to fast-track him and convinced the rest of the squad to follow his press rather than merely admire it.
Europe and the world is now discovering the same hurricane at the 2025 Club World Cup. García opened the Xabi Alonso era by scoring against Al-Hilal, chipped another in the group-clinching win over Salzburg, and then rose above Juventus’ back line in Miami to head Madrid into the quarter-finals—three decisive goals plus an assist in four games.
From Pitch 3 at Valdebebas to thunderclaps at Hard Rock Stadium, every stride carries the academy’s imprint: technique refined in the state of the art facilities, mentality forged by treating every internal scrimmage as a final.
García’s output has been both economical and omnipresent: three goals wrung from xG of 2.0 makes him one of the joint-top scorers left in the competition. His pass reception map and heat-map show that he can receive the ball deep but when you need him in the box, doing the job of a typical striker, he is there.
Gonzalo García’s Club World Cup surge has drawn praise from every rung of the Real Madrid ladder. “He is a typical number 9—he reminds me of Raúl; always in the right spot and waiting for the chance,” enthused head-coach Xabi Alonso after the 3-0 win over Salzburg, adding that García’s Castilla-honed work ethic means “we need him more” in the first team.
Former Juvenil-A boss Hernán Pérez, who first shifted the youngster inside from the wing, once reached for an even bigger comparison: “I don’t think Gonzalo will be far behind Haaland if they give him the continuity and prominence he needs—he can be Madrid’s striker for the next ten or twelve years”.
The player himself revealed how that lineage is nurtured from within: “Raúl sent me a very affectionate message, congratulating me on the goal,” García said in Philadelphia, framing the Castilla icon’s mentorship as an extra spark for his current form.
He plays like someone who understands the club’s past tense and future perfect in a single heartbeat, and in doing so he spares Madrid the cost of looking elsewhere for that Joselu profile.
After this tournament, it feels less like he is knocking on the first-team door than like the door is already open, waiting for him to walk through.