The Iker Casillas conundrum

Flashback to the 1st of July, 2012 – Iker Casillas had just lifted the UEFA EURO 2012 as captain of the Spanish national team and led them to an unprecedented third tournament win in succession. It culminated, what had been an amazing year for Casillas where his club Real Madrid had just won the Spanish La Liga after 3 years, amassing a record point haul in the process and missed out on the final of the Champions league by a whisker.

In short his cult status in Spain and the entire footballing world had never been more intact.

Come October, 2013 and ‘The Saint’ – as he is fondly called – has not only lost his place with the Los Blancos but is no longer the first choice for La Rojas as well. Rock solid in the national side irrespective of his position at club level, this was one spot that not many thought he would relinquish. With Victor Valdes’ amazing form this season too hard to ignore, the Barcelona custodian has started to stake claim as the number one, and if things stand as they are, he most certainly will be between the posts in Brazil.

So what exactly went wrong for someone who has made the Spain and Madrid No.1 Jersey his own for more than a decade and in the process has won all that there is to win in football? Casillas after all has 150 international caps – a record for his country and more than half a dozen goal keeping records to his name.

It all began on that fateful night of December 22, 2012 when a certain Jose Mourinho decided to bench Casillas in favour of Antonio Adan for the league match against Malaga. Mourinho’s reasons were simple – “FORM”. But many believe it was something personal. What’s interesting is that that the last time Casillas was benched it was way back in 2002 against Deportivo La Coruna. The decision did backfire, but it didn’t end there.

Casillas was back for a King’s Cup Quarter Final match against Valencia at the Mestalla but as luck would have it, he was injured by his own teammate, Alvaro Arbeloa and this sidelined him for several weeks. Keeping this in mind Mourinho brought in former Madrid man Diego Lopez and that’s when catastrophe struck.

Lopez took to Madrid like a fish takes to a pond grabbing his opportunity with both hands. The Mourinho favourite displayed some amazing performances and eventually retained his starting place even when Casillas returned from injury limiting the club captain to nothing but a role on the bench.

Vicente Del Bosque, however, still had faith in his captain and Casillas retained his place as leading the Spanish to the Confederations Cup where they eventually finished as runners-up. Many believed Casillas’ situation at Madrid was more down to his personal issues with the Special One and with Mourinho leaving at the end of the 2012-2013 season, everyone expected him to be back to where he belonged.

But here came the twist.

New Madrid manager, Carlo Ancelotti – a man known to trust veterans – stuck with Diego Lopez. Maybe Mourinho was right after all. Even more worrying is the fact that slowly and steadily the chants of “BRING BACK IKER” are also dying out. A lot of it has got to do with Diego Lopez’s breathtaking performances in the goal.

The bigger question her is ‘what now?’, because with the World Cup just round the corner, Casillas needs to find more playing time. One option obviously would be to fight and regain his place at the Bernabeu and in turn his place for Spain and considering what a fighter he is he might just do that exactly. The second option would be to look for new pastures. But seeing Casillas in another’s team’s jersey is just not imaginable. His high wage and price-tag may also turn away a few suitors given his age.

Time is not on Casillas’ side and if he at all wants to lead his country to another triumph in Brazil next year he needs to act and act real soon. He recently claimed that he would not leave Madrid despite whatever has happened over the past one year but maybe a move might be beneficial.

Or else, ‘The Saint’ used to showing miracles to the millions who adore him, might just need one himself.