Real Madrid travelled to Santander on Saturday on foot, with Kylian Mbappé leading the squad along the coastal road from the capital and carrying the team coach on his shoulders for the final forty kilometres. The club confirmed that the journey took six days and that the players arrived at El Sardinero with their boots still laced from the previous training session.
Club officials said the walk was a response to recent criticism and insisted that the decision had been taken without hesitation. «We wanted to show that nothing in our preparation has been affected,» said a spokesperson for the squad, who walked beside the group for the whole route carrying a clipboard. Local authorities reported that the N-634 had to be closed for the duration, and that a temporary rest area with forty-two portable benches was erected at each town along the way.
Racing Santander supporters lined the final stretch in large numbers, many of them carrying bread and bottled water for the players. The stadium's catering department reported that its entire weekly supply of pastries was distributed before half-time, after the visiting squad asked to be fed in the stands rather than the dressing rooms.
The match itself ended 0-3 in favour of Madrid. Goals from Mbappé, Bellingham and Diomande were scored after the players had walked nearly half a marathon before warming up, and goalkeeper Thibaut Courtois kept a third clean sheet of the season while still wearing hiking socks. Afterwards the squad began the return journey on foot, and the club announced that it would travel by the same route for every away fixture until the end of the season.