In the summer of 2022, in a Madrid video for their social networks, Fede Valverde was asked what position he would play in if it weren’t in the middle. “Center, handing out sticks,” he responded with a laugh. Curiously, that is one of the few demarcations from the center of the field to the back that he has not tried in recent months. The cement player of the white team has been pivot, interior, winger and right back. “I don’t care if someone likes me playing as a winger or not because with Valverde there we have won two Champions Leagues,” Carlo Ancelotti dropped a week ago, a phrase that was interpreted as a message to the player’s entourage.
The Uruguayan returns for the final of the Intercontinental Cup against Pachuca to the halls of the shining Lusail, from where he emerged two years ago in the World Cup like a lost soul after being defeated against Portugal in the group stage, the defeat that would end up condemning to Uruguay. But that brief, and bitter, time in Qatar contrasts with the continuity it has had since then. His race has become a marathon without refreshment points. There is never any rest for him. “It’s a special case,” the Italian coach admitted in Bergamo.
The last game he missed due to injury with Madrid dates back even before the World Cup. It happened in October 2022, in Leipzig. His muscles resist and he doesn’t want to stop to refuel either. Just a year ago, when Ancelotti told him at half-time of the inconsequential Champions League match in Berlin, against Unión, that he was not coming out in the second half to give him some respite, he did not hide his great anger in the locker room, according to a source who witnessed the scene. I wanted a little more, to play at least the start of the second half.
Same deployment in the new core
His bag of hours accumulated by matches played has been revealed as a bottomless pit. According to the records of the world footballers’ union Fifpro, in the last three seasons (the accounting for the current one goes up to mid-October), he is the outfield player in the League with the most minutes between his club and the national team (13,104), for ahead of his German teammate Antonio Rüdiger (12,580) and the Polish Robert Lewandowski (12,183).
The match counter does not stop and his odometer on airplanes has skyrocketed due to his permanent status with Uruguay. A risk factor, according to all analysts, to protect oneself from injuries in times of infinite calendars. Quite a stress test for its engine which, for the moment, responds without problems every three days. Fifpro figures from the 2018-19 campaign to mid-October place him as the player in the Spanish championship who has spent the most time traveling between his club and his country (49,078 minutes, the equivalent of 34 days), and the one who has spent the most distance traveled (616,949 kilometers). It has changed time zones 334 times. The second in this period is the Argentine Rodrigo de Paul: 45,342 minutes (31 and a half days).
With his country and at the Bernabéu, all roads pass through Valverde, in whatever position. Last Saturday, in Vallecas, one of the final offensive substitutions in search of victory was to return him to the right back to bring out another forward (Endrick). Where big changes have not been noticed so far is in his participation in the release of the ball. At a time of orphanhood in the center of the field after the self-retirement of Toni Kroos – from whom he inherited the number eight -, and with difficulties in finding players to start a well-articulated chain of passes, not many new developments have been seen in the functions of the Uruguayan. The responsibility has fallen more on the discussed Tchouameni, Camavinga, Modric, now Ceballos and some Bellingham. Or in Rüdiger’s classic long ball. He, more capable of driving, often stands one step above the base when Madrid tries to come out with the ball played. His specialty continues to be covering all escape routes and, again, threatening from long distance.
Four distant goals, the most
The Uruguayan has once again stood out with the stone in his right foot, as Carletto described it two years ago. In Vallecas, a blow ignited Madrid and made him the footballer in the five major leagues with the most goals from outside the area (four), according to Opta statistics. They are followed with three by Cole Palmer (Chelsea), Matheus Cunha (Wolverhampton) and Giovani Lo Celso (Betis).
This season, of every three shots on goal in the championship, one ends up inside. A figure that brings him closer to his great scoring explosion prior to the 2022 World Cup. So, from August to November he scored every 2.3 shots on goal.
Goals and sweat in the key footballer who opens almost all of Ancelotti’s doors from the center of the field to the back. This season, the only match he has been absent from was one between Uruguay and Venezuela in September, and it was due to an accumulation of yellow cards.
