Things have gotten weird in Madrid. Real Madrid captain Federico Valverde will miss El Clásico on Sunday after a fight with fellow midfielder Aurélien Tchouaméni.
According to the reports, things had been brewing over the course of an intense practice that included several hard tackles. As the two proceeded into the locker room, things only got worse, eventually leading to their fight. Eventually, Valverde was taken to the hospital to be treated for a cut on his head.
Real released a statement on Friday that said: “During the appearance, the players expressed their deep regret for what happened and apologized to each other.”
“They have also apologized to the club, their teammates, the coaching staff, and the fans, and both have made themselves available to Real Madrid to accept whatever sanction the club deems appropriate.”
How they got here
This altercation comes after a long season full of issues. They fired coach Xabi Alonso early in the season, and it was reported that he left Madrid with friction with Vinicius Júnior, Valverde, and Jude Bellingham. They subsequently hired Álvaro Arbeola.
However, even under Arbeola, there have been some issues. It has been revealed that Arbeola has had arguments with several of his players over the past couple of weeks. On top of that, they had their debacle in the Champions League, in which club owner Florentino Pérez yelled at the squad. Now they’re facing the possibility of going trophyless for the second straight season.
The coaching search
Now the team is looking for their fourth coach in the past two seasons, which is an all-time low for arguably the greatest team in European soccer. There have been reports that they’ve been leaning towards Jose Mourinho, but there are countless world-class candidates available.
Whoever they decide to bring in, they have to be able to manage egos. There have been numerous stories about Zinedine Zidane being able to do that when he led them to three straight Champions League titles. That roster included Cristiano Ronaldo, Karim Benzema, Gareth Bale, and Sergio Ramos. That squad had many better players, so it sets a precedent for this squad.
It’ll be interesting to see where Madrid goes from here. There are clearly a lot of locker room issues that they have to address. Now they just have to find a manager who is willing and able to deal with all of them.
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