Real Madrid midfielders Federico Valverde and Aurélien Tchouameni trained together again on Thursday morning in Valdebebas, a day after their altercation in Wednesday’s session. The fallout from their fierce confrontation the day before still hung in the air, and the dispute flared again in the dressing room, ending with Valverde on his way to the hospital after slipping in the scuffle and hitting his head on the central table. In line with protocol, he was taken to a medical center for tests and discharged shortly afterward.
The soccer club has opened an internal inquiry to clarify what happened between the two players. And the chief executive, José Ángel Sánchez, went to the training area to gather the squad.
The confrontation began during a training match on Wednesday when, according to sources close to Valdebebas, Valverde began flying into tackles on Tchouameni with more force than the drill required. When the session ended, the Uruguayan still hadn’t cooled off and waited for the Frenchman to continue the dispute, which carried on into the dressing room.
On Thursday, Real Madrid held another training session to prepare for Sunday’s clásico — the name given to any match between Real Madrid and FC Barcelona — at the Camp Nou, and Valverde still hadn’t cooled off after his clash with Tchouameni. Arbeloa put them on opposing sides in the training match, and the Uruguayan again directed his aggression toward the Frenchman. Once more, the dispute carried into the dressing room. There, they grappled, a few blows were exchanged, and Valverde slipped and hit his head against the table in the changing area. Medical staff treated the cut on site in Valdebebas, with Arbeloa present, before a doctor accompanied the player to the hospital for further checks.
Alarmed by the seriousness of the situation, José Ángel Sánchez summoned the squad for a meeting. Some players, like Dani Carvajal, had to return to the training complex to attend the club’s attempt to restore order.
Real Madrid has been sending out unmistakable signals of a club in turmoil, and the pace of the unraveling has quickened this week. On Tuesday afternoon, an anonymous source close to the club’s highest‑paid player, Kylian Mbappé, sent a statement to AFP insisting his holiday with his partner had been misinterpreted and defending his “commitment” to the club.
That same night, Álvaro Carreras posted on Instagram that Antonio Rüdiger had hit him in the dressing room — something the German player later apologized for — while also defending his own “commitment” to the team.
On Wednesday, training at Valdebebas ended with the first heated confrontation between Tchouameni and Valverde, confirmed to this newspaper by people present at Valdebebas.
The looming prospect of a second consecutive trophyless season has brought long‑simmering tensions and divisions in the dressing room to the surface. Since the 2024 Champions League, relations have broken down in a squad where some players haven’t spoken to each other for months. According to several sources with access to the dressing room, the group is still shaped by old youth‑team loyalties and resentments: one faction fell out with football manager Xabi Alonso during their academy years, and another has recently clashed with head coach Álvaro Arbeloa. Those fractures have now resurfaced in the first team.
The disappointing performances on the pitch and the internal divisions have pushed the board to work on what several people familiar with the plans call “a small revolution” for next season. They believe the situation cannot be fixed simply by appointing a new coach — something they already take for granted — but will require both departures and arrivals. In fact, what they describe as a small revolution may not be small at all: the same sources insist that the club needs “something people will notice.”
The board has identified shortcomings in footballing quality, leadership, and maturity. Across different levels of the club, there has been growing concern — and frustration — over the indifference shown by some of the younger players, including a recent signing. They have been alarmed by the drop in professional commitment, by egos inflated without results to back them up, and by the dismissive attitude certain players have shown after defeats and poor performances. Long‑serving staff members say they miss the standards of discipline, competitiveness, and commitment embodied by the heavyweights who have left the dressing room in recent years: Nacho, Kroos, and Modric, to name only the most recent.
With the departure of the squad’s senior leaders, the dressing room has been left without figures capable of imposing order, and players have grown wary of two inexperienced coaching staffs. A group distrusted Xabi Alonso’s assistants from the start, and Alonso’s authority weakened further when the president of Real Madrid, Florentino Pérez, publicly backed Vinicius after the forward’s very visible defiance during the first clásico. Arbeloa’s staff, with even less top‑level experience, has faced similar pushback, leading to tensions with Dani Carvajal, Raúl Asensio, Álvaro Carreras, and Dani Ceballos.
The club is also troubled by the presence of several individuals inside the dressing room who appear intent on leaking internal conflicts — something senior figures describe as a betrayal of trust. They believe the leak about the Valverde–Tchouameni incident was meant to cause damage.
Suspicion also surrounds the criticism of Mbappé’s holiday in southern Italy with his partner during his injury recovery. He returned to Madrid minutes before the Espanyol match, drawing heavy criticism from fans and irritation from some teammates. Inside the club, the uproar is seen as an attempt to shift blame toward Pérez, who spent years pursuing the player. Even so, the club’s leadereship believes Mbappé has yet to fully grasp what it means to be the cornerstone of Real Madrid.
Against this bleak backdrop, with no trophies in sight to mask the crisis, Arbeloa’s team prepares for Sunday’s clásico — a dangerous fixture in which Mbappé remains doubtful. If Madrid fail to win at Sunday’s game, they will be forced to watch Barcelona celebrate a second straight league title, confirming Real’s second consecutive season without a trophy.
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