Real Madrid B finished fourth in Primera Federación.
They collected 41 points, won twelve matches and had only Barcelona B, Alavés and Valencia above them. Their status as a reserve side barred them from competing for promotion to Liga F.
Of the top four, the two who were allowed to go up did so: Alavés directly and Valencia through the play-off. The other two were B teams, and the rules hand their place to the next side down. Neither of them moved.
The promotion arrived by another route.
Laia López, Silvia Cristóbal and Noe Bejarano are leaving the B team to join the senior squad permanently. All three had already made their top-flight debuts, and all three are now tied to Real Madrid until 30 June 2030.
A goalkeeper and two defenders are leaving the division without changing clubs.
Three different routes to the same contract
Laia López was the first to have it confirmed.
The goalkeeper arrived at Real Madrid in 2022 and came through the Juvenil and the reserve side. She won the league with both, including the 2023/24 campaign that ended with Real Madrid B going up to Primera Federación.
She made her first-team debut in May 2025. She has also been a European champion at under-17 and under-19 level with Spain, and an under-17 World Cup runner-up.
The most recent of those titles is three weeks old. She was the starting goalkeeper in the final Spain won against Germany in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the national side’s fifth consecutive under-19 European Championship.
The club announced on 17 June that she would be part of the senior squad for the 2026/27 season.
Read the profile: Laia López, from the Real Madrid reserve side to Spain’s under-19 goal.
Silvia Cristóbal was next.
The defender joined the academy in 2021 and has come through every age group. She won the league with the Cadete and Juvenil sides before reaching Real Madrid B, and with Spain she became a European champion at under-17 and under-19 level.
She made her first-team debut in April 2025. Real Madrid confirmed her permanent promotion on 15 July.
Noe Bejarano completed the group on 28 July.
The full-back arrived in 2023 and spent three seasons with the reserve side. She was part of the promotion to Primera Federación, won the Torneo Juvenil RFEF in 2024 and has two under-19 European Championships with Spain.
She also made her first-team debut in May 2025.
All three have signed until 2030. These are not reserve-team players invited to make up the numbers in pre-season, then, but three new members of the Liga F squad.
The success that forces a rebuild
Losing all three at once weakens one specific area of Real Madrid B.
The team lose a goalkeeper and two defenders having conceded 27 goals in 26 matches, the fourth-best record in last season’s Primera Federación.
That figure explains where promotion slipped away. They won as many matches as Valencia, who finished third, and scored exactly as many goals. But they lost nine, against Valencia’s four, and drew five, against ten.
The reserve side did not fail in defence or in attack. They failed at not losing.
Losing all three at once also confirms what the team was created for.
Real Madrid’s reserve side began competing in 2020 and reached the second tier four years later. Their first season in Primera Federación ended in seventh place. In the second they climbed to fourth.
Along the way, Laia, Silvia and Noe began alternating the B team with call-ups and minutes in Liga F. The final step does not come straight from the youth ranks: all three have used Primera Federación as the last stage before settling into the elite.
The sporting result now forces the reserve side to rebuild part of its goal and its defence. The development side proves that the process has worked.
None of the three has finished her summer yet: all three are in the Spain under-20 squad preparing for the World Cup in Poland, which begins in September.
Real Madrid B cannot be promoted to Liga F.
But this summer they have promoted three of their players.
