Real Madrid: 3 breakout stars from the 2019-2020 season

CM Fede Valverde

This list absolutely must start with Fede Valverde. We’ve rarely seen a young player at Real Madrid immediately become a big-game player, but Valverde was often the best player in Real’s biggest rivalry matchups.

He had the decisive intervention on Alvaro Morata in Real’s eventual Spanish Supercup victory in Saudi Arabia, taking one for the team, so to speak. And even before his red card challenge on the former Real striker, Valverde was the star of the match.

Weeks later, he put in an even better display in Los Blancos’ La Liga El Derbi victory.

And then a month after that, Valverde was the Man of the Match against FC Barcelona in a wonderful 2-0 win at the Santiago Bernabeu for Los Blancos, as Valverde built on his standout December display vs. Barça at the Camp Nou.

Valverde is already one of the best box-to-box midfielders in Europe and has the potential to be one of Real’s most important players for years to come. Already, he is a crucial part of Zinedine Zidane‘s XI, since the team looks demonstrably worse without his hard running, great defending, and key transitional play in counters.

Clearly, the young Uruguayan has made quite the impression on Madridistas and the manager himself. He is an indispensable part of the team, and fans cannot wait to see how he grows in 2020-2021.