Vinicius Junior, Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham are Real Madrid’s star trio — but where would Carlo Ancelotti’s team be without Federico Valverde?
The 26-year-old has been a man for all seasons in Madrid and this season has made yet another unfamiliar position — right-back — his own.
The Uruguay midfielder, who joined from Penarol in his homeland for around €5million ($5.5m; £4.2m at current exchange rates) in 2017, has filled in at the back after Dani Carvajal’s long-term anterior cruciate knee ligament injury and a slump in form for back-up Lucas Vazquez.
Valverde was key in the first leg of the Champions League round-of-16 tie against Atletico Madrid, when he provided the assist for Rodrygo’s opening goal and made several decisive interventions in defence. He played that game at the Bernabeu despite a hamstring problem which, according to the club and his entourage, meant he was at 60-70 per cent.
There is a reason Madrid coaching-staff sources, who like all the others cited in this article spoke on condition of anonymity to speak freely, called Valverde “the most important” player in the squad towards the end of last season. What makes him so special?
The Athletic tells the story of the boy from Montevideo who literally dreamed of playing for Madrid, who turned down interest from Arsenal and other big clubs. At 26 and with 14 titles won, he is part of the Spanish club’s rich history.
Valverde is the son of a security worker, Julio, and a shop assistant, Doris. The youngest of the family, he was born in the Uruguayan capital of Montevideo.
He was shy as a child but different with a ball at his feet. According to those close to him, he would always jot down statistics, results and details of new signings in his notebooks or play football against the walls of his family’s house in the La Union neighbourhood of Montevideo.
From early on, he stood out for his distinctive playing style and slight build, which earned him the nickname El Pajarito — the little bird.
Penarol, one of the country’s top clubs, soon signed him for their youth setup, with Valverde joining their academy when he was 11 years old. He made his first-team debut for them in August 2015, aged 17, going on to make 13 appearances for them from 2015-16.
His life changed when Arsenal invited him to train with them aged 16. He travelled to London with his brother Pablo and was impressed by the friendliness and support of the team’s Chilean winger Alexis Sanchez, but Valverde did not feel it was his place. The teenager did not want to leave his family for a country with a much colder climate and a language he did not speak.
His moment to join the elite came by surprise in the middle of South America’s Under-17 championship in 2015. There he met Juni Calafat, the man who is now Real Madrid’s chief scout, who told him he was wanted in the Spanish capital.
“I didn’t quite believe it,” was how Valverde put it when interviewed for a documentary released by Real Madrid in 2019.
Valverde playing for Penarol in 2016 (Sandro Pereyra/LatinContent via Getty Images)
Calafat, who has since helped sign Vinicius Jr and Rodrygo among other young South American stars, presented Valverde and those close to him with a detailed sporting and personal project. That included Madrid helping his family with a move to Spain to help the youngster settle.
The €5million deal Madrid agreed with Penarol now looks like one of the best pieces of business in the club’s history. In an interview with the club’s official media in 2019, Valverde’s mother Doris described how he had twice dreamt of joining Los Blancos.
“‘Mum, Dad!’ — he came running into the room — ‘I had a dream: there were a lot of people in white shouting for me, but they were talking strangely’,” Doris said. Valverde later had the same dream — but this time he knew the people in white were Spanish.
He underwent medical tests and agreed the deal in 2015, but he would only join fully a year later when he turned 18 and met FIFA regulations.
In his first season in the Spanish capital, 2016-17, he played for the club’s second team, Castilla, in the third tier of Spanish football. Those close to him say he was initially overwhelmed by the big personalities and luxury the other players in the dressing room lived in.
He made 30 appearances in a squad that included now Paris Saint-Germain right-back Achraf Hakimi and Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard, with then-coach Santiago Solari providing support.
Valverde had to make a difficult move in summer 2017 to make it to the first team, joining Deportivo La Coruna on loan after interest from Real Betis. Valverde moved to La Coruna, 600km from Madrid in the northwestern Spanish region of Galicia, without his parents and credits that season with helping him to mature on a personal and sporting level — he still keeps a Deportivo shirt in his trophy room at home.
Pepe Mel, the former West Bromwich Albion manager, gave him his La Liga debut for Deportivo at 19 in September 2017.
“He was introverted and already a great professional,” Mel tells The Athletic. “It was good for him because he shared a dressing room with veteran players and that accelerated his learning.
“I was the first (coach) to try him on the wing, both on the left and on the right, and I faced some criticism for that.”
Mel says Valverde’s spell at Deportivo ‘accelerated his learning’ (Quality Sport Images/Getty Images)
Mel’s sacking, a knee injury and the appointment of former Madrid, Milan and Netherlands midfielder Clarence Seedorf as coach midway through the season did not help Valverde, who played just 1,317 minutes over 25 games.
He made his senior debut for Uruguay in September 2017 and has since gone on to play for the national team 67 times and has been captain on 13 occasions.
Valverde’s breakthrough with Madrid’s first team came when he was informed he would be part of the pre-season squad in the United States under new head coach Julen Lopetegui in the summer of 2018.
“We saw a discreet player but with a hunger and energy that was evident as soon as you spoke and worked with him,” says one training-ground source at the time. “Sometimes he seemed a bit absent, as if he was trying to find his place in a squad with so many stars. But he never spared any effort and went on tour convinced that this was his chance.”
Valverde took everything in, paying particularly close attention to his childhood idol Toni Kroos. Even when Madrid sacked Lopetegui, replaced him with Solari in October and then with Zinedine Zidane in March, Valverde found his place in a team that boasted a midfield trio of Casemiro, Luka Modric and Kroos.
He was a right-winger in the 2021-22 season as Madrid won a La Liga-Champions League double. Vinicius Jr turned home the only goal in the Paris final against Liverpool after a cross-shot from Valverde. A tweet in October 2022 from Kroos showed how important he had become and the German asked for Valverde to inherit his No 8 shirt when he announced his surprise retirement at 34 last year.
Fede Valverde top 3 in the world right now
— Toni Kroos (@ToniKroos) October 16, 2022
Valverde’s versatility has helped him thrive under multiple coaches. As the below graphic shows, he has played in 11 different positions in La Liga since 2019-20. He won last season’s Champions League playing as a midfielder and there are some who joke about how he could complete the ‘perfect hat-trick’ by lifting a third European title at Munich’s Allianz Arena in May as a right-back.
He enjoys a close relationship with Ancelotti, who in 2022 challenged him to score more than 10 goals after finishing the 2021-22 campaign with just one, jesting that he would retire if he did not reach that tally. Valverde responded with 12 goals.
Valverde’s powerful shot from distance is a part of his game. The below graphic shows how all five of his goals in La Liga this season have come from shots from 30 yards out across the width of the box. He has outperformed his expected goals (xG) figure by almost four and only Wolverhampton Wanderers’ Matheus Cunha can match his five goals from outside the box in Europe’s top five leagues.
Valverde’s versatility has not always worked in his favour. In November, his wife, the Argentinian journalist Mina Bonino, complained on X about her husband playing as a winger against Milan.
Bonino deleted those messages and Ancelotti tried to avoid any controversy when he told his press conference that night: “It’s complicated to comment on what people think on social media.” Valverde played it down in a press conference before the Supercopa de Espana final against Barcelona in January, saying “Both sides defended what they love the most.”
Bonino always supports him, and is vocal on social media, but is his biggest critic behind closed doors. In an article for The Players’ Tribune in 2023, Valverde revealed her strong words after Madrid’s Champions League round-of-16 exit to Ajax in 2019: “Really, Fede, what was that? Is that how you plan to play for Real Madrid?”.
They live in Madrid’s luxury La Moraleja development with their two sons, Benicio and Bautista. Bautista’s birth was preceded by serious complications during the pregnancy. Valverde described it as “f***ing hell” in his Players’ Tribune article.
In 2023, Valverde was accused of punching Villarreal midfielder Alex Baena in the area for the team buses at the Bernabeu. Baena, who was later seen with a bruised and swollen cheekbone, filed a police complaint over the incident but that was dismissed by a magistrates’ court in July of that year as it was claimed there was no evidence of criminality. Baena was alleged to have made a comment to Valverde about his then-unborn baby, which was strongly denied by Baena and his representatives.
The Uruguayan has become a leader on the pitch for Madrid, having worn the captain’s armband five times in recent games. From May last year to February, he played 45 games in a row.
These days, the boy who was once nicknamed El Pajarito is more commonly known as El Halcon — the falcon. From an introvert to a leader, Valverde is in full flight.
Additional contributor: Thom Harris
(Top photo by Maria Gracia Jimenez/Soccrates/Getty Images)
