The Spaniard's disappointing spell at Old Trafford has not harmed his career prospects as he is set to re-join Los Blancos for a fee of up to €50m
Some players seem destined for the top from the very start of their careers, enjoying a seamless rise from the academy of a top club into the senior team before potentially becoming the subject of a big-money transfer. Real Madrid's squad is full of players who followed that path before eventually ending up at Santiago Bernabeu, including Trent Alexander-Arnold, David Alaba and Kylian Mbappe.
Then there are the late bloomers who started out at more moderate clubs before climbing their way through the ranks of mid-level sides to the elite. Take Antonio Rudiger, who began his career with Stuttgart, ascended to Roma and later Chelsea before joining Madrid in 2022. And then there are players who start out at the biggest clubs but whose careers seem to have stalled, only for them to arrive back where they started.
And that's the story of Alvaro Carreras, who is set to complete his return to Madrid five years after leaving the club to broaden his horizons. Carreras moved to Manchester United in 2020 at the same time that Alejandro Garnacho joined from Atletico Madrid. But while Garnacho – who is more than a year younger than Carreras – thrived at Old Trafford and burst into the senior team at the age of 18, the full-back took a different route.
Carreras went out on loan to Preston North End – which he described as "going to the mud" – and then to Granada before eventually leaving United on a permanent basis for Benfica without ever playing a minute of senior competitive football. His career, however, finally took off at the Estadio da Luz, and heads around Europe were turned. As Carreras' coach, Bruno Lage, put it towards the end of last season: "When I arrived here Alvaro was seen as a failure. But now Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid want to sign him."
Real have won the battle after agreeing to pay €50 million (£43m/$58m) for the 22-year-old while sending Rafael Obrador the other way in exchange for €5m. It means Carreras has the chance to emulate Marcelo, his childhood hero, by carving out his own story as Madrid's next great left-back.
Where it all began
Carreras was born in Mallorca but grew up in Ferrol, Galicia in the north west of Spain. He enrolled at local club Racing de Ferrol at the age of just four and started out as a striker. "I loved scoring goals," he told . "In one season with Racing, I scored 100!"
He then moved to local giants Deportivo La Coruna, where Carreras was converted to left-back. He admitted that the hardest thing about adapting to defence was running back as he had such attacking instincts, joking that he defends by attacking.
In 2017, Carreras upped sticks to the Spanish capital to join Real Madrid's academy. "It was a difficult decision," he revealed. "A good step, but a tough one. I had to leave my home and move 600 kilometres away to chase my dream of being a footballer."
AdvertisementThe big break
Three years later, Carreras took an even bolder step by moving to Manchester United at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. "It was another difficult decision to take, but I think it was the right one," he said. "My characteristics fit perfectly with English football. I wanted to come to England to improve in defence and become a 10/10 player. And it's impossible to not improve when you are training every day with Cristiano Ronaldo, Juan Mata, Jadon Sancho and Marcus Rashford."
Carreras scored six goals and contributed 11 assists in his two seasons in United's youth system, and a particularly impressive performance for the Under-21s against Chelsea at Stamford Bridge as he capped a consistent performance in the 1-1 draw with a brilliant goal for which he toyed with a defender before zipping inside the area and lashing into the far bottom corner.
Carreras was left frustrated, however, by his inability to force his way into the United first team. Alex Telles and Luke Shaw were blocking his path at first, and then the arrival of Tyrell Malacia in the summer of 2022 prompted him to seek a loan move to Championship side Preston in order to get senior experience. Carreras made 39 appearances at Deepdale and notched six assists, describing the move as a "good challenge".
In the summer of 2023, he took part in United's pre-season friendlies against Leeds and Lyon, but was left out of all of the main matches during the tour of the United States. Carreras only featured against Wrexham, when United put out a team of youth players alongside veteran Jonny Evans, and the left-back did manage to set up the Red Devils' only goal for fellow Spaniard Marc Jurado.
Getty How it's going
The defender also started the final pre-season game against Athletic Club, and his hopes of making his senior debut were lifted when Shaw picked up an injury in the second match of the campaign against Tottenham while Malacia underwent knee surgery. But rather than give Carreras a chance, United opted to sign Sergio Reguilon on an emergency loan deal from Tottenham.
Carreras was instead shipped off to Granada, where he endured a frustrating time, starting only five matches for one of the weakest teams in La Liga. His lack of opportunities led to United cancelling the loan and sending him to Benfica in January 2024, and it was in Lisbon where his career at last took off.
After an underwhelming first few months when he was in and out of the team, Carreras got a proper run in the team under new coach Lage and grabbed the opportunity with both hands. He scored two goals in one week in November, a left-footed strike against Farense followed by a right-footed effort in the 4-1 thrashing of Porto.
Carreras' form for Benfica led to instant comparisons with Alejandro Grimaldo, another Spanish left-back whose career took off at the Estadio da Luz, and speaking to last November, Carreras explained why he was suddenly playing well while taking a thinly-veiled dig at United for not giving him a chance to prove himself.
"I believe that if you deserve something, you will get it eventually," he said. "I felt like I had unfinished business at United. If you don't get an opportunity, you have to leave and prove yourself. That's what I had to do. I had to go and prove myself in the Championship. Then at Granada I didn't settle very well, but you have to go out and demonstrate what you can do. If you have talent, people will see it eventually."
Getty Biggest strengths
Carreras' main asset is his dribbling ability. While he is pacey, he prefers to beat defenders with trickery rather than speed, slowing down the play and dragging the ball to one side before fooling his opponent. He can fly down the left wing and shoot or cross with his favoured left foot, but he can also cut inside on to his right on occasion. That attribute means he can play as an inverted full-back and comfortably push into midfield, while he also has an impressive capacity to spray long passes.
He has also made huge strides in his defensive game, which Carreras puts down to his year with Preston. He told : "I think that I learned the most defensively when I went down to the mud, to the English Championship. I was at Preston for a year on loan and I improved a lot. I was more focused because I've always found it easy going forward, but defensively I had to concentrate more."
The most obvious legacy of Carreras' time at Deepdale is his love for making slide tackles, something he has perfected while at Benfica. He is unafraid of diving in to his own area to stop attacks and is aggressive when it comes to winning the ball back in midfield.