Raphael Varane explains how role of centre-back has changed

Former Real Madrid and Manchester United defender Raphael Varane has explained that ‘everything is different’ for a central defender in 2015 compared to when he was starting out in the professional game almost 15 years ago. The Frenchman was at the top of the game for a decade, before injuries interrupted the final few years of his career, until his retirement this past summer.

Varane was just 18 when he joined Los Blancos after emerging at RC Lens. After a call from Zinedine Zidane, Varane was on track to sign for Real Madrid, but did aso speak to Jose Mourinho, who at that time was manager at the Bernabeu.

“Not by phone, but before signing I traveled to Madrid and I did speak with him in person. I needed to know if he truly wanted me,” he recounted to Diario AS. “Mourinho has a lot of charisma. I left saying, “I’m going to kill myself for that man.”

Varane could have signed for Manchester United instead

However they were not the only club interested in him. The World Cup-winner also had an amusing anecdote on Sir Alex Ferguson’s courtship of him on the behalf of Manchester United, who he would eventually join over a decade later.

“Many, actually. Ferguson even came to see me personally at home. He had a trip planned to Paris, and Lille is on the way. And he stopped. I couldn’t believe it. Between the fact that I don’t speak English and that he has a very strong accent, it was difficult to understand each other. But I was very impressed, to be honest.”

‘Everything is different’ for central defenders

Varane had ample years of experience at the top of the game, and was part of Real Madrid’s historic three-peat in the Champions League. Over his career, Varane felt that there had been a paradigm shift at his position.

“Everything is different. When I started, there weren’t many big, fast players. Now they all are. Back then, a centre-back was strong and slow, and they were just defenders. Their job was to defend, defend, and defend. Today, centre-backs are fast, physical, very good with the ball… But that art of defending is lost a bit.”

“When the striker breaks through, you get in the way and clash with him, that kind of thing. Don’t let anyone get behind you. I call that the art of defending: anticipating, intercepting the ball. And you see it less, but the physical and technical level is incredible. Look at Saliba, Konate, Upamecano… All very powerful and very good with the ball.”

He went on to describe the work of a central defender as ‘choosing the least damaging option’.

“Towards the end of my career I didn’t run as much because I positioned myself better. I learned, and it took me a long time, to engage in a duel at the right moment. At the beginning of my career I analysed the situation a lot, too much, and I didn’t intervene because I was thinking about all the options.”

“As a centre-back, sometimes you have to choose the lesser of two evils. If there are five bad solutions, you have to choose the least damaging one. And if you overthink things, you miss the right moment to intervene. I finished my career at the highest level, playing against Haaland in the derby final at Wembley. And I felt I had perfect control of my timing. And I enjoyed it.”

Certainly on the ball, defenders are also expected to do far more than they were when Varane emerged. That much has been made evident by the signing of Dean Huijsen at Real Madrid, who stands out as much for his technical ability as he does for the mechanics of defending that Varane describes.