Federico Valverde


Federico Santiago Valverde Dipetta is a Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a central midfielder for Spanish club Real Madrid and the Uruguay national team.

Club career

Peñarol

Valverde spent most of his youth career with Peñarol, where he quickly made an impression. Making his debut for Peñarol in their first fixture of 2015–16 season against Cerro. He became part of Uruguayan's youth teams and attracted the interest of clubs like Arsenal, Barcelona, Chelsea and Real Madrid.

Real Madrid

In July 2016 he transferred from Peñarol to Real Madrid, being assigned to the B team. Two months later, Valverde made his debut for Castilla against Real Unión, in a game which his club eventually lost. He became a regular member of the second team during his debut season. The midfielder scored his first goal for Castilla against Albacete in December 2016.
In regards to his growing importance to the team, Santiago Solari, his coach at Castilla, said on 29 January 2017, "I'm very happy with him. He has adapted very well to the club and country. Valverde always generates a lot of football in midfield."

Loan to Deportivo La Coruña

On 22 June 2017, Valverde was loaned to La Liga side Deportivo de La Coruña for one year. He made his debut in the competition on 10 September, replacing Fede Cartabia in a 2–4 home loss against Real Sociedad.
Valverde contributed with 24 league appearances during the campaign, as his side suffered relegation.

Return to Real Madrid

Upon returning from loan, Valverde impressed new manager Julen Lopetegui during the 2018–19 pre-season and was definitively assigned to the first-team. On 9 November 2019, he scored his first La Liga goal in 4–0 win against SD Eibar.
On 12 January 2020 Valverde tackled Álvaro Morata during Real Madrid's Supercopa game against Atletico Madrid, committing a professional foul and stopping play with Morata clean through on goal. Valverde was sent off, but his actions stopped what was an inevitable goal, forced a penalty shootout which Real Madrid won, and earned him the man of the match award and widespread praise. He made 33 appearances during the league season, as Real Madrid won the 2019–20 La Liga.

International career

Federico Valverde was awarded Silver Ball at the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup as Uruguay finished fourth in the tournament.
On 5 September 2017, he made his debut with Uruguay national football team and scored his first international goal with the senior team in a match against Paraguay.
In May 2018 he was named in Uruguay’s provisional 26–man squad for the 2018 FIFA World Cup in Russia; however, he was left out of the final 23–man squad.
In March 2019, manager Óscar Tabárez included Valverde in the final 23-man Uruguay squad for the 2019 Copa América in Brazil. In the quarter-finals against Peru on 29 June, a 0–0 draw after regulation time saw the match go to a penalty shoot-out; Uruguay lost the shoot-out 4–5 and were eliminated from the competition.

Controversies

In the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup quarter-finals match against Portugal, Valverde displayed a facial expression using his fingers to slant his eyes after scoring a penalty. This action was considered racist and offended numerous football fans in the host nation, Korea Republic and Valverde has been criticized by tens of thousands of football fans around the world. He has since explained that the celebration was for his friend and agent "el Chino" Saldavia.

Career statistics

Club

1 Includes Copa del Rey and Supercopa de España.

International

International goals

NoDateVenueOpponentScoreResultCompetition
1.5 September 2017Estadio Defensores del Chaco, Asunción, Paraguay1–02–12018 FIFA World Cup qualification
2.7 June 2019Estadio Centenario, Montevideo, Uruguay3–03–0Friendly

Honours

Peñarol
Real Madrid
Individual