A special visit at Santiago Bernabeu: Ready to welcome the match vs Celta on 11 September!

Real Madrid players Nacho, Luka Modrić, Dani Carvajal, Lucas Vázquez and David Alaba joined the coaching staff on a special visit to the Santiago Bernabéu to check out how the stadium’s redevelopment is progressing. The Real Madrid stars enjoyed a guided tour and found out some of the more technical details behind the transformation of the world-famous stadium.

On the official website of Real Madrid the announcement was as follows: “Several members of the first-team squad and coaching staff, led by the boss Carlo Ancelotti, paid a special visit to the Santiago Bernabéu to see the progress being made on the stadium. The party were shown a number of videos that explain the work being undertaken as a part of the revamp and were told all about the project by Enrique Pérez”.

With the corresponding helmet required to access a work area and the striking orange vest with the Real Madrid crest, Modric, Carvajal, Alaba, Lucas Vázquez and Nacho enjoyed the evolution of the new Bernabéu, took pictures and recorded videos for their social networks.

The €525-million renovation project was initially set to begin in summer 2017, but began in 2019. The capacity will remain at 81,000 seats, but the height will be increased by ten metres and a roof will be added. The club is expected to sell the naming rights to the renovated stadium. The work is expected to last three and a half years (2019–2022) and it seems that the most difficult part is already completed.

The project is complex because it will not stop the football and therefore complicates the works and design, which has a roof that encloses the whole stadium. They are going to lift the roof like the Romans did, but with modern technology. They will raise the inner ring by string-pulling with hydraulic jacks, bridge technology and ski lifts in a short period of time in the summer to respect the sporting calendar," said Tristán López Chicheri, the individual in charge of the renovation.

In March 2020, Real Madrid decided to expedite the renovations after the Royal Spanish Football Federation suspended La Liga due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The expedition included interior work, which made the pitch unplayable and prompted Real Madrid to play their matches at the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium instead as everyone remembers.

The success of the project is in safe hands as Florentino Perez himself is taking care and watching the progress step by step so everything that he and his staff have asked for the stadium will be there. L35, one of the largest architectural firms in Spain, in partnership with GMP Architekten, the worlds nº1 stadium specialist, and Ribas&Ribas a hotel specialist architectural firm, were selected by the Real Madrid’s board of directors to remodel the iconic Santiago Bernabéu Stadium. Pérez attended the Polytechnic University of Madrid and has a degree as Civil Engineer and his choices are reliable for everyone at Real Madrid.

The Santiago Bernabeu stadium with the new face will be ready to welcome back Real Madrid following the international break. Los Blancos have been away from their home for around a year, playing games at Valdebebas while work began at the Bernabeu. The famous old stadium is getting a huge revamp, including a new roof and a new shell, and it’s a project that won’t be completed until late 2022. But having done the early work, the Bernabeu is set to welcome back Real Madrid and the fans from early September. The work will continue in between games, but it will be safe for fans to attend in the meantime.

The move to improve the stadium couldn’t have been timed much better by Real Madrid given they were able to play at Valdebebas while fans were locked out anyway due to the pandemic, and the first three games of this season were all scheduled away from home to allow more time for the stadium to be made safe to welcome supporters.

Fans will now be able to return ahead of the September 11 clash with Celta Vigo next month, and it’s hoped the 40% limit set by the central government will be increased by then. According to a report by Nuevo Estadio Bernabeu via Marca, the grass is set to be re-laid at the stadium across September 7 and 8 ahead of that first game back on the 11th. At that point, the stadium will of course remain a building site, but fans will be able to see some of the progress, including the frame for the new roof, which has already been put in place.