Zaragoza: the academy push and the cost of a starting spot

Real Zaragoza’s 2026-27 campaign began with a strong bet on the club’s youth. As Sport reports, Lalo Arantegui built the squad with a core of players raised at the Ciudad Deportiva who, crucially, started the league with prominent roles for Ibai Gómez.

In the opening match in Tarragona, the coach fielded five academy players from minute one, including Ander Herrera. In the later game referenced (vs Antequera), the same pattern held: another five youth players were in the starting XI, among them Pau Sans and Marcos Cuenca, together with Ander, Terrer and Vadillo.

Trust for early minutes

The sporting aim, according to Sport, was to give the team an identity from day one—rooted in the club’s “land”—while also extracting immediate performance to support the collective objective.

More pressure, less guaranteed starts

Sport stresses that, with quality depth—two solid options for each position at Primera RFEF—pressure on starters will rise in the coming weeks. That also means the academy group has to increase output if they want to keep the privileged place earned during preparation.

The piece adds that Ander Herrera is practically untouchable, while Lucas Terrer faces competition from the bench through Ademo, Rubén Díez and Saidu. In attack, Ibai Gómez has strong faith in Pau Sans, described as a differential for the division: Sport notes he scored three goals in pre-season, but is still waiting for his first league strike.

Finally, Sport underlines that official matches demand more. It points to this past Saturday as an example, when Jaume Jardí went to the bench for not being at the required level; after coming on, he complained—reinforcing that even big names such as Joaquín Delgado cannot afford complacency. The message: Zaragoza needs to have the best players on the pitch as long as possible.