The signs were always there, but it has taken a barnstorming first LaLiga season at Alaves to force his parent club to take immediate heed.
Three years ago, Marcos Llorente was playing for Real Madrid’s Juvenil A side. Previously a winger, a growth spurt enabled him to move infield and into the thick of the action, something which the now 21-year-old has relished to the point of not looking back since.
Grand-nephew of both ex-Real Madrid players Paco and Antonio Gento, grandson of Ramon Grosso, son of Paco Llorente and nephew of Julio Llorente, he hails from a oceanic gene pool of athletes - talented ones, at that. Between them, they appeared in 1,163 competitive Real Madrid matches, with the latest clan prodigy aiming to add to the family collection before too long.
“He plays football better than I did when he was my age,” Paco Gento admitted in 2014, and it is not only genetics which are on his side.
Mentally, Marcos Llorente was streets ahead of those around him at youth level, something that stood him in good stead for a loan move outside of his comfort zone. Natural talent can only go so far in any discipline, but the Spanish youth international has the internal drive and desire for self-improvement even when the spotlight is off.
“After each game I talk to my uncle and we analyse the game, review the video and point out the mistakes,” Marcos Llorente told El Pais journalist Diego Torres last year.
“Genetics are good, but the body doesn't just develop genetically, but by the work you put in. I noticed that this changed me compared to my teammates.
“I played very little in the youth teams, the moment it changed was when I started training alone to get stronger. To me, my physique has given me everything. I spend afternoons lifting weights, and above all, doing a series of thousand-metre runs, or even a Fartlek session.”
The young midfielder’s Instagram is a mixture of photos of his pug named Keidi, work-out videos, sport massages and food that is consistently packed with protein. To all intents and purposes, he treats his body as a machine that has been designed for hitting the lofty expectations that he has imposed upon himself. Great players have the ability to make a difference on the pitch, but the best obsess over making a difference to themselves off of it.
Taken in as a lodger by 27-year-old Alaves teammate Ibai Gomez, the two have put together something of a dysfunctional extended family between their girlfriends and three pugs, with it a running joke that Ibai’s girlfriend, Ingrid, has been replaced. Marcos and Ibai work out together, cook endless amounts of meat, sweet potato and roasted vegetables together and, as if they didn’t spend enough time in each other’s company already, sometimes sit next to each other on the team bus.
But while living with a close friend and Keidi provides the basis for the young Spaniard to feel comfortable off the pitch, he doesn’t need his hand held on it. From when he first started playing football, Marcos Llorente did not avoid confrontation, but instead he rather enjoyed getting his hands dirty.
“I was one of the smallest and skinniest of the team. I did not care if the opponents were bigger. I was going to clash with them. After I had a growth spurt, whenever I could, I went into the middle of the pitch because what I liked was to be involved all the time. I could not stand having the ball only every 10 minutes.”
That willingness to remain relevant and not be left on the periphery of Alaves’ play has seen the Spain under-21 international win the ball back for his team on a staggering 225 occasions in 24 LaLiga matches, putting him as the most effective outfield repot man in the division.
In doing this, the Madrid-born midfielder hasn’t picked himself up a defamatory nickname. There is no pitbull-esque tenacity to his game, and he enjoys constructing alongside being destructive. Everything is well-measured and under control. He is not rash, nor underhand in his tactics. He trusts his own physical capabilities to keep his opponents within reach and under close observation. In 24 appearances he has just five bookings to his name, and all of them have been yellow.
Xabi Alonso recently announced his decision to bow out from football, but his legacy is set to live on through Marcos Llorente’ calculated and calm approach to dismantling opposition play. The way the 21-year-old wants to play the game should only utilise his impressive athletic capacity as a last resort.
“We did a pre-season together with Ancelotti and I noticed his positioning,” the Real Madrid loanee explained last year, recounting his 2014 experience with Los Blancos’ first-team squad.
“Without being too fast he steals a lot of balls and he goes to ground really well. Sliding in to get the ball is dangerous for two reasons, because you can foul your opponent and because you don’t have time to get back up if he beats you. You must only go to ground when you have no other choice. But if Xabi goes, he always wins the ball.
“I do not think about the statistics. When you are playing, you cannot say, ‘Now I will win the ball back more to break records!’ - you do what the game requires. The trick is to press when the opponent who is receiving the ball has his back to goal or doesn’t have the ball under control.”
Although his mind never wanders from the task at hand on the pitch, there is an omni-present goal to forever ponder. The promise of following in his family’s footsteps to pull on the clean, all-white strip of Real Madrid is a constant allure, buoyed by Zinedine Zidane taking a shine to the youngster and promoting him to the club’s Castilla during his spell as boss.
This season, Zidane’s players have learned that places must be earned, not handed out. The likes of Isco, James Rodriguez, Mateo Kovacic, Lucas Vazquez, Marco Asensio and Alvaro Morata find themselves regularly on the bench, but there is a steely and persuasive way to which Marcos Llorente articulates the topic at hand.
“At a competitive level, I see myself as a (Toni) Kroos, (Luka) Modric or Casemiro. No-one is given a chance to play in the first team because he is a son or a grandson. In my position, Real Madrid require someone with experience and maturity,” he explained to Marca Plus in March.
For Alaves, he has been getting plenty of the former while keeping a firm handle on the latter. His years of individual training and self-discipline have amalgamated in bursting onto the top-flight scene as the most graceful bull to be ever spotted parading itself around a china shop.
“The hardest thing in football is to have a starting place at Real Madrid,” Marcos Llorente admitted, speaking to El Pais.
“It is one thing to debut or play the last 20 minutes, but another to get a starting place. They are the team with the best players in the world. I try not to think about it too much, but being a starter for Real Madrid is my dream.”
With his drive and personal obsession with self-improvement, that dream is rapidly becoming a reality. A one-year loan deal is often a risk, and sometimes the gamble of a temporary move doesn’t pay off.
Armed with self-confidence and an unwavering focus on what he must do to achieve his footballing goals, the much-fancied midfielder has rubbished the possibility of failure and is posing Zinedine Zidane with a real dilemma heading into the summer.
One calculated step back has moved Marcos Llorente two huge strides forwards.
