Real Madrid: Manchester United, Chelsea want Fede Valverde, but it doesn’t matter

Real Madrid have one of the world’s most promising young midfielders in Fede Valverde, and he is quite clearly not for sale.

Although Ferland Mendy had an excellent first season at Real Madrid and Vinicius Junior was incredible in the second half of the season, center midfielder Fede Valverde was the team’s biggest breakout star in 2019-2020.

Always a highly-regarded prospect, Valverde took the first big step in his career at Real Madrid this past season as a box-to-box midfielder. When he took the field with Casemiro as the defensive midfielder and Toni Kroos as the attacking midfielder, Real’s trio in the middle of the park were unstoppable.

Valverde offered plenty of running, excellent defensive work, aesthetically pleasing technical work, and wicked transitions into counterattacks as the No. 8. Zinedine Zidane immediately took a liking to the hard-working midfielder, who quickly won over the fans as the next star at the Santiago Bernabeu.

According to a report from ABC Deportes’ Tomas Gonzalez-Martin, big Premier League clubs such as Manchester United and Chelsea have shown interest in Valverde.

Real Madrid’s response has been simple, understandable, and sensible. Fede Valverde is not for sale.

Valverde recently signed an extension through 2025 after it became abundantly clear that he’s everything the team needed in midfield. To ward off any and all interest from clubs around Europe, Real attached a hefty 500 million euro release clause to the indispensable young star’s contract.

If Valverde wanted to leave and a Premier League side was inexplicably willing to part ways with 500 million euros, then a deal could be completed.

But that isn’t happening and Real Madrid know it. Furthermore, Valverde loves his football at the Bernabeu and has become a big-match player and fan favorite. As everyone saw in the Spanish Supercup final against bitter rivals Atletico Madrid, Valverde will do anything to make sure his team wins.

Valverde is the perfect player for Real and Zidane. It didn’t hurt United and Chelsea, for example, to inquire with Florentino Perez on the young star’s availability, but they had to know his availability would be non-existent.

Real know how special of player Valverde is, and, at the age of 21, they know how high his ceiling will be. Expect him to play out his contract – and then some – becoming a club legend at the heart of Los Merengues’ formidable midfield.