Federico Santiago Valverde Dipetta (; born 22 July 1998) is a Uruguayan professional

footballer A football player or footballer is a sportsperson who plays one of the different types of football. The main types of football are association football, American football, Canadian football, Australian rules football, Gaelic football, rugby lea ...

who plays as a

midfielder In the sport of association football, a midfielder takes an Glossary of association football terms#O, outfield position primarily in the middle of the pitch. Midfielders may play an exclusively defensive role, breaking up attacks, and are in t ...

for club

Real Madrid Real Madrid Club de Fútbol (), commonly referred to as Real Madrid, is a Spanish professional Football club (association football), football club based in Madrid. The club competes in La Liga, th ...

and the Uruguay national team. Mainly a central-midfielder, he is also able to play as a defensive-midfielder, and occasionally a

right-back In the sport of association football, a defender is an outfield player whose primary role is to stop attacks during the game and prevent the opposition from scoring. Defenders fall into four main categories: centre-backs, full-backs, sweepers ...

. Valverde began his professional career with

Peñarol Club Atlético Peñarol (), more commonly referred to as Peñarol, is a Uruguayan professional football club based in Montevideo. The club currently competes in the Uruguayan Primera División, the highest tier in Uruguayan football. The nam ...

in 2015, winning the

Uruguayan Primera División The Liga Profesional de Primera División (American Spanish , , local: , ''First Division''), named "Torneo Uruguayo Copa Coca-Cola" for sponsorship reasons, is the highest professional Association football, football league in Uruguay organized b ...

in his first season. In 2016, he joined Real Madrid, initially playing for the club's

reserve team In sports, a reserve team is a team composed of players who are under contract to a club but who do not regularly play in matches for the club's primary team. Reserve teams usually include players who are part of the larger first-team squad but ...

. He made his first-team debut in 2017 and has since gone on to make over 250 appearances for the club, winning three

La Liga The Campeonato Nacional de Liga de Primera División, commonly known as the Primera División or La Liga, and officially known as LaLiga EA Sports for sponsorship reasons, is a professional association football league in Spain and the highest ...

titles, two

FIFA Club World Cup The FIFA Club World Cup (FIFA CWC) is an international men's association football competition organised by the ''Fédération Internationale de Football Association'' (FIFA), the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The compe ...

s, two

UEFA Champions League The UEFA Champions League (UCL) is an annual club association football competition organised by the UEFA, Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) that is contested by List of top-division football clubs in UEFA countries, top-divisio ...

titles, two

UEFA Super Cup The UEFA Super Cup is an annual super cup Association football, football match organised by UEFA and contested by the winners of the two main European club competitions: the UEFA Champions League and UEFA Europa League. The competition's offic ...

s, and the

Copa del Rey The , commonly known as , or (in English) the Spanish Cup or King's Cup, and formerly known as Copa del Presidente de la República (1932–1936) and Copa del Generalísimo (1939–1976), is an annual knockout football competition in Spanis ...

. Valverde made his international debut for

Uruguay Uruguay, officially the Oriental Republic of Uruguay, is a country in South America. It shares borders with Argentina to its west and southwest and Brazil to its north and northeast, while bordering the Río de la Plata to the south and the A ...

in 2017, and has since represented his country at three

Copa América The CONMEBOL Copa América (; known until 1975 as the South American Football Championship), often simply called the Copa America, is the top men's quadrennial association football, football tournament contested among list of men's national ass ...

tournaments (

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

) and the

2022 FIFA World Cup The 2022 FIFA World Cup was the 22nd FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Qatar from 20 November to 18 December 2022, after the country was awarded the hosting ri ...

Early life

Valverde was born on 22 July 1998 in Unión, a neighbourhood in the capital city of

Montevideo Montevideo (, ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Uruguay, largest city of Uruguay. According to the 2023 census, the city proper has a population of 1,302,954 (about 37.2% of the country's total population) in an area of . M ...

, to Julio Valverde and Doris Dipetta. He has one older brother, Diego, and two step-brothers, Pablo and Matías Castro. Valverde is of

Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...

and

Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, a Romance ethnic group related to or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance languag ...

descent and became a naturalised Spanish citizen in 2020 after receiving his

Spanish passport A Spanish passport () is an identity document issued to Spanish citizens with right of abode in the Iberian mainland, Ceuta, Melilla, Balearic Islands and Canary Islands, for travel outside Spain. Every Spanish citizen is also a citizen of the ...

. Valverde started his youth career with his local neighbourhood club, Estudiantes de la Unión. He then tried out for

a few years later and was scouted by Néstor Gonçalves.

Club career

Peñarol

Valverde spent most of his youth career with

, where he quickly made an impression. He made his club debut on 23 July, one day after his 17th birthday, in an international friendly against Cruzeiro where they won 3–1. He had then his senior debut for the club on 16 August 2015 in their first fixture of the 2015–16 season against Cerro, during which he was guided and mentored by his childhood idol and teammate,

Diego Forlán Diego Forlán Corazo (born 19 May 1979) is a Uruguayan professional Manager (association football), football manager and former football player who played as a Striker (association football), striker. Regarded as one of the best forwards of his ...

. He became part of the Uruguayan national youth teams and attracted the interest of European clubs, including

Arsenal An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, or issued, in any combination, whether privately or publicly owned. Arsenal and armoury (British English) or armory (American English) are mostly ...

Barcelona Barcelona ( ; ; ) is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of Catalonia, as well as the second-most populous municipality of Spain. With a population of 1.6 million within c ...

, Chelsea and

Real Madrid

In July 2016, Valverde was transferred from Peñarol to Real Madrid, initially being assigned to their reserve team

Castilla Castile, Castille or Castilla may refer to: Places Spain *Castile (historical region), a vaguely defined historical region of Spain covering most of Castile and León, all of the Community of Madrid and most of Castilla–La Mancha *Kingdom of ...

. Two months later, he made his debut for Castilla against

Real Unión Real Unión Club, S.A.D. is a Spanish football club based in Irun, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the province of Gipuzkoa, near the border with France. Founded on 15 May 1915 it currently plays in Primera División RF ...

, in a game which his team eventually lost. He became a regular member of the Castilla line-up his debut season, and scored his first goal against

Albacete Albacete ( , , ) is a city and municipality in the Spanish autonomous community of Castilla–La Mancha, and capital of the province of Albacete. Lying in the south-east of the Iberian Peninsula, the area around the city is known as Los Llan ...

in December 2016. In regards to his growing importance to the team,

Santiago Solari Santiago Hernán Solari Poggio (born 7 October 1976) is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who played as a left midfielder. He spent the better part of his 16-year professional career in Spain, amassing La Liga totals ...

, 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

side

Deportivo de La Coruña Real Club Deportivo de La Coruña (), commonly known as Deportivo La Coruña () or simply Depor, is a Spanish professional association football, football club based in the city of A Coruña, Galicia, that competes in the Segunda División, the ...

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 Real Sociedad de Fútbol, more commonly referred to as Real Sociedad ( ; ''Royal Society'') in English, and Erreala or Reala in Basque language, Basque, is a Spanish professional sports club in the city of San Sebastián, Donostia / San Sebastián, ...

. Valverde contributed with 24 league appearances during the campaign, as the side suffered relegation.

2018: Return to Real Madrid

Upon returning from loan, Valverde impressed new manager

Julen Lopetegui Julen Lopetegui Argote (; born 28 August 1966) is a Spanish professional football manager and former footballer. He is the current manager of the Qatar national team. A goalkeeper, he played 149 La Liga matches over nine seasons, representing ...

during the 2018–19 pre-season and was definitively assigned to the first-team. On 23 October 2018, Valverde made his official Real Madrid debut in the

Group stage against

Viktoria Plzeň Viktoria usually refers to Viktoria, a name which is the same as Victoria (name), but may also refer to: Places * FK Viktoria Stadion, stadium of Viktoria Žižkov * Viktoria-Luise-Platz, building in Berlin * Viktoriastadt, now known as Victor ...

at the Bernabéu at just 20 years old. He made 25 appearances and won the

in his first season with the first team.

2019–2021: First team breakthrough

With the return of

Zinedine Zidane Zinedine Yazid Zidane (; ; ''Zineddin Lyazid Zidan''; ; born 23 June 1972), popularly known as Zizou, is a French professional Manager (association football), football manager and former Football player, player who played as an attacking midfi ...

to the dugout and the departure of Marcos Llorente, Valverde broke through to become a key player of the squad during the 2019–20 season. On 9 November 2019, he scored his first goal for Real Madrid, in a 4–0 away win over

Eibar Eibar (, ) is a city and municipality within the province of Gipuzkoa, in the Autonomous Community of Euskadi. It is the capital of the '' eskualde / comarca'' of Debabarrena. Eibar has 27,138 inhabitants ( Eustat, 2018). Its chief industry is ...

in La Liga. On 12 January 2020, Valverde tackled

Álvaro Morata Álvaro Borja Morata Martín (born 23 October 1992) is a Spanish professional Football player, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for Süper Lig club Galatasaray S.K. (football), Galatasaray, on Loan (sports), loa ...

during the Supercopa de España Final against Atlético Madrid, committing a professional foul and stopping play with Morata clean through on goal. Valverde was sent off, but his actions stopped what was a likely goal, forced a penalty shootout which Real Madrid won, and earned him the Man of The Match award and widespread praise. Atlético Madrid manager

Diego Simeone Diego Pablo Simeone González (; ; born 28 April 1970), nicknamed "El Cholo" (), is an Argentine professional football manager and former player who played as a defender. He has been the manager of club Atlético Madrid since December 2011 mak ...

later referred to the tackle as "the most important play of the game". He made 33 appearances during the league season, as Real Madrid won the

2019–20 La Liga The 2019–20 La Liga season, also known as LaLiga Santander for sponsorship reasons, was the 89th since its establishment. The season began on 16 August 2019 and was originally scheduled to conclude on 24 May 2020. Barcelona were the two-time ...

. On 27 September, Valverde scored Real Madrid's first goal of the 2020–21 season away to Betis in

in an eventual 3–2 win and was selected as the 'King of The Match'. This was also his 50th La Liga match for ''Los Blancos''. One month later on 24 October, Valverde scored against

at the

Camp Nou Camp Nou (), meaning ''New Field'' and often referred to in English as the Nou Camp, is a stadium in Barcelona and the home of La Liga club FC Barcelona since its opening in 1957. It is currently undergoing renovation, and with a planned increa ...

in just five minutes in an eventual 3–1 league win. He became just the second Uruguayan to score in

El Clásico El Clásico (in Spanish, also in lowercase letters; ) or El Clàssic (in Catalan, ), both meaning "The Classic", is the name given to any football match between rival clubs Barcelona and Real Madrid. Originally referring to competitions he ...

(after

Luis Suárez Luis Alberto Suárez Díaz (; born 24 January 1987) is a Uruguayan professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Striker (association football), striker for Major League Soccer club Inter Miami CF, Inter Miami. Known for his go ...

) and the first for Real Madrid. One week later, Valverde scored again, against

Huesca Huesca (; ) is a city in north-eastern Spain, within the Autonomous communities of Spain, autonomous community of Aragon. It was the capital of the Kingdom of Aragon between 1096 and 1118. It is also the capital of the Spanish Huesca (province), ...

, in a 4–1 league win at the

Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium Alfredo (, ) is a cognate of the Anglo-Saxons, Anglo-Saxon name Alfred (name), Alfred and a common Italian language, Italian, Galician language, Galician, Portuguese language, Portuguese and Spanish language personal name. Given name Artists a ...

. This was his third goal of the season, meaning he had already scored more than in the entirety of the previous campaign.

2021–present: Contract extensions and Champions League victories

On 24 August 2021, Valverde extended his contract until 2027. On 12 January 2022, he scored Real Madrid's third goal in a 3–2 win over Barcelona in extra time of the

Supercopa de España The Supercopa de España, also known as the Spanish Super Cup, is a super cup tournament in Football in Spain, Spanish football. Founded in 1982 Supercopa de España, 1982 as a two-team competition, the current version has been contested since 2 ...

semi-final, a tournament which Madrid eventually went on to win. On 28 May, he assisted

Vinícius Júnior Vinícius José Paixão de Oliveira Júnior (; born 12 July 2000), commonly known as Vinícius Júnior or Vini Jr., is a Brazilian professional Association football, footballer who plays as a Forward (association football), forward for La Liga ...

to score the winning goal in a 1–0 win over

Liverpool Liverpool is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Merseyside, England. It is situated on the eastern side of the River Mersey, Mersey Estuary, near the Irish Sea, north-west of London. With a population ...

in the

2022 UEFA Champions League Final The 2022 UEFA Champions League final was the final match of the 2021–22 UEFA Champions League, the 67th season of Europe's premier club football tournament organised by UEFA, and the 30th season since it was renamed from the European Champion ...

to clinch a record 14th

title for Real Madrid. On 14 September 2022, he scored his first Champions League goal in a 2–0 victory over

RB Leipzig RasenBallsport Leipzig e.V. (), commonly known as RB Leipzig or informally as Red Bull Leipzig, is a German professional association football, football club based in Leipzig, Saxony. The club was founded in 2009 by the initiative of the company ...

. In the 2022–23 season, he netted 12 goals in all competitions, fulfilling his coach

Carlo Ancelotti Carlo Ancelotti (; born 10 June 1959) is an Italian professional football manager and former player who is the manager of the Brazil national team. Nicknamed "Carletto" in Italy and "Don Carlo" in Spain, he is regarded as one of the greatest ...

's pre-season prediction that he would score more than 10 goals. On 9 November 2023, Valverde extended his contract with Real Madrid until 30 June 2029. On 9 April 2024, he scored a first-time volley in a 3–3 draw against

Manchester City Manchester City Football Club is a professional association football, football club based in Manchester, England, that competes in the Premier League, the English football league system, top flight of Football in England, English footbal ...

in the Champions League quarter-finals, which eventually earned him the honour of Goal of the Season. Following the victory in the Champions League final, it was announced that he acquire the number 8 shirt after

Toni Kroos Toni Kroos (born 4 January 1990) is a German former professional footballer who played as a midfielder. Widely regarded as one of the greatest midfielders of all time, he was known for his vision, pinpoint precision passing, crossing, and set-p ...

' retirement.

International career

Youth

Valverde was awarded the Silver Ball at the

2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup The 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup was the 21st edition of the FIFA U-20 World Cup, the biennial international men's youth football championship contested by the under-20 national teams of the member associations of FIFA, since its inception in 1977 a ...

finished fourth in the tournament. In 2017, Valverde was caught up in a controversial gesture after making a " slant eyes" celebration after scoring in the Under-20 World Cup. Valverde denied that the celebration was racist but stated that it was in homage to his first agent, Edgardo "El Chino" Lasalvia. FIFA called on Uruguay to explain Valverde's actions, as well as a celebratory photo of the squad in which several ''Celeste'' players made the same gestures.

Senior

Valverde was called up to the Uruguay senior squad in August 2017. The same year on 5 September, he marked his debut with his first goal against

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

. Valverde was named in Uruguay's provisional 26-man pool for the

2018 FIFA World Cup The 2018 FIFA World Cup was the 21st FIFA World Cup, the quadrennial world championship for national association football, football teams organized by FIFA. It took place in Russia from 14 June to 15 July 2018, after the country was awarded t ...

, but left out of the final 23-man squad. Valverde was included by manager

Óscar Tabárez Óscar Washington Tabárez Silva (; born 3 March 1947), known as ''El Maestro'' (The Teacher), is a Uruguayan former professional football manager and former player. After an unassuming career as a player and after working as a primary school ...

in the final 23-man Uruguay squad for the

2019 Copa América The 2019 Copa América was the 46th edition of the Copa América, the international men's association football championship organized by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. It was held in Brazil and took place between 14 June and 7 Ju ...

in Brazil. In the quarter-finals against

Peru Peru, officially the Republic of Peru, is a country in western South America. It is bordered in the north by Ecuador and Colombia, in the east by Brazil, in the southeast by Bolivia, in the south by Chile, and in the south and west by the Pac ...

on 29 June, a goalless draw after regulation time had the match go to a penalty shoot-out, Uruguay lost 4–5 and was eliminated from the competition. He was also included in the final 23-man squad for the

2021 Copa América The 2021 Copa América was the 47th edition of the Copa América, the international men's association football, football championship organised by South America's football ruling body CONMEBOL. The tournament took place in Brazil from 13 June to ...

and

Personal life

Valverde's previous nickname was ''Pajarito'' (baby bird), but now refers to himself as ''Halcón'' (

falcon Falcons () are birds of prey in the genus ''Falco'', which includes about 40 species. Some small species of falcons with long, narrow wings are called hobbies, and some that hover while hunting are called kestrels. Falcons are widely distrib ...

), alluding to his growth as a professional footballer. "Everyone joined the ''Halcón'' thing, and I liked it, it was very funny to me. There were people who got angry because they wanted to keep calling me ''Pajarito'', but I'm the ''Halcón'' now," said Valverde in an interview. Valverde is in a relationship with Argentinian journalist and presenter Mina Bonino. They have two sons, Benicio, born in 2020, and Bautista, born in 2023. Valverde allegedly punched

Villarreal Villarreal (officially, in ) is a city and municipality in the province of Castellón which is part of the Valencian Community in the east of Spain. The town is located at 42 m above sea level, 7 km to the south of the province's capital ( ...

player

Álex Baena Alejandro "Álex" Baena Rodríguez (born 20 July 2001) is a Spanish professional footballer who plays as a left winger or attacking midfielder for La Liga club Villarreal and the Spain national team. Club career Baena was born in Roquetas ...

in the Santiago Bernabéu car park following a 3–2 defeat in La Liga match on 8 April 2023. The alleged incident was alleged to have been caused by a comment Baena made to Valverde about Bonino's miscarriage scare. On 3 July, the case against Valverde was dismissed as a magistrates' court found no evidence of criminality.

Career statistics

Club

International

:''Scores and results list Uruguay's goal tally first, score column indicates score after each Valverde goal.''

Honours

Peñarol * Primera División: 2015–16 Real Madrid *

: 2019–20, 2021–22, 2023–24 *

2022–23 The dash is a punctuation mark consisting of a long horizontal line. It is similar in appearance to the hyphen but is longer and sometimes higher from the baseline. The most common versions are the endash , generally longer than the hyphen ...

2020 The year 2020 was heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, which led to global Social impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, social and Economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, economic disruption, mass cancellations and postponements of even ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

: 2021–22, 2023–24 *

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

FIFA Intercontinental Cup The FIFA Intercontinental Cup is an international men's association football competition organised by FIFA, the sport's global sports governing body, governing body. The first edition took place in 2024 FIFA Intercontinental Cup, 2024. The co ...

Uruguay *

third place:

Individual *

La Liga Team of the Season The La Liga Awards, previously known as the LFP awards, are presented annually by the Liga de Fútbol Profesional (LFP) to the best players and coach in La Liga, the first division of association football in Spain. Established in the 2008–09 La ...

, 2023–24, 2024–25 *

FIFA U-20 World Cup The FIFA U-20 World Cup is the biennial football world championship tournament for FIFA members' men's national teams with players under the age of 20. The competition has been staged every two years since the inaugural tournament in 1977 when i ...

Silver Ball Silver is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol Ag () and atomic number 47. A soft, whitish-gray, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical conductivity, thermal conductivity, and reflectivity of any metal. ...

2017 2017 was designated as the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development by the United Nations General Assembly. Events January * January 1 – Istanbul nightclub shooting: A gunman dressed as Santa Claus opens fire at the ...

UEFA The Union of European Football Associations (UEFA ; ; ) is one of six continental bodies of governance in association football. It governs football, futsal and beach soccer, beach football in Europe and the List of transcontinental countries#A ...

La Liga Revelation Team of the year: 2019–20 *

La Liga Player of the Month The Player of the Month is an association football award that recognises the best La Liga player each month of the season. Winners Multiple winners The following table lists the number of awards won by players who have won at least two Player ...

: September 2022 * FIFA Club World Cup Silver Ball:

* FIFA Intercontinental Cup Silver Ball:

* ''The Athletic'' La Liga Team of the Season: 2024–25

Notes

References

External links

Profile
at the Real Madrid CF website
Profile
at the Uruguayan Football Association website * {{DEFAULTSORT:Valverde, Federico 1998 births Living people Footballers from Montevideo Uruguayan men's footballers Men's association football midfielders Peñarol players Real Madrid Castilla footballers Real Madrid CF players Deportivo de La Coruña players Uruguayan Primera División players Segunda División B players La Liga players UEFA Champions League–winning players Uruguay men's youth international footballers Uruguay men's under-20 international footballers Uruguay men's international footballers 2019 Copa América players 2021 Copa América players 2022 FIFA World Cup players 2024 Copa América players Uruguayan people of Spanish descent Uruguayan sportspeople of Italian descent Uruguayan expatriate men's footballers Expatriate men's footballers in Spain Uruguayan expatriate sportspeople in Spain Naturalised citizens of Spain