Real Madrid Player of the Month Nominees Announced for October

On October the 1st, if you could have asked any Real Madrid fan to provide the dream month for the club, they probably would have drawn it up exactly the way it ended up going. 

The team won all five games - three in La Liga and two in the UEFA Champions League, scoring 15 goals along the way, and most notably defeated Barcelona 2-1 in El Clasico at Camp Nou, the first time they had failed to win a home game in the league since the 24/25 season. 

During the month of October, several players seriously stepped up their game in order to try and right the wrongs from the defeats to Real Betis and Atletico Madrid the previous month. 

Perhaps none more so than Yan Diomande, Dean Huijsen, Federico Valverde, Thibaut Courtois and Jude Bellingham, who have all been nominated for Real Madrid Player of the Month. 

Some may say that September winner Arda Guler, who was again excellent during October, can feel hard done by, as well as Kylian Mbappe, who scored both goals in the Clasico victory. However, the five nominees were all exceptional in their own right, and deserve their nominations. 

We saw Diomande really begin to take his place in the starting XI. In the first game of the month, against Villarreal, he was handed what was at the time, a rare start - and took it with both hands, scoring the only goal of the game. 

Since then, the suspension of Vinicius has meant that the Ivory Coast international has been afforded a lot more game time, and he is again taking that opportunity. He provided an assist in the win over Roma, before scoring and assisting against both Sevilla and former club RB Leipzig, despite playing just 20 minutes in that one. 

Meanwhile, Huijsen has been superb since serving his one game suspension against Villarreal, both physically and with his exceptional ball playing abilities that are really helping the team in build up. Thibaut Courtois has been at his excellent best in goal, as always, and was the reason Roma weren't fully out of sight in that comeback win. 

As for Valverde, well he has deputised at right-back excellently, and is the embodiment of a team player who will die for the cause. Then, Bellingham has been back to scoring goals and making a difference in the final third. For my money, Diomande would be the worthy winner.