"I have to change": when Fede Valverde "clicked" to go from 'Pajarito' to 'Halcón'

• Chronicle Fede Valverde comes out of the fog to put light against Red Bull Leipzig

• The lawnmower Madrid doesn't care about being imperfect

"Sometimes I let myself go. I didn't eat badly, but maybe I didn't eat as well as I should have.

... And one day on a trip my mind clicked. If I wanted to be a professional I had to be more mature and have respect for where I am".

In

with this newspaper in May of this year, just before the

final ,

explained the moment in which his career changed.

The '

', who in the pandemic "had not done things as a Real Madrid professional should do", stood against the mirror and assumed his mistakes.

Four months later, the little bird is "

", as they joke in the locker room, he assisted the

goal and has become

, the soul of an undefeated team this season thanks, in a big way measure, to the performances of the Uruguayan.

He has

in eight games and is on his way to destroying the figures he had scored so far in Chamartín:

.

"I have already told him that

. He has a stone in his foot," Carlo Ancelotti, a Valverde lover, commented yesterday.

"

, yes...", joked the footballer.

The coach has been fundamental in the growth of the young midfielder.

He has given him

that his game demanded and the confidence that his head needed, and the Uruguayan has responded by beating the

in every race.

Yesterday, in the mixed zone after the match against

, the earth was still attached to the kit.

He clashed throughout the game with the rival left-back, the German

, and their confrontation ended with Valverde ordering him to shut up after the 1-0.

Before, the Leipzig defender had celebrated a good defense against him in the face of the Uruguayan.

The celebration of the goal, with the fists in front and the arms shaken, is already a trademark of the house.

He did it in Paris and in each agonizing goal for Madrid to win an important game.

A passion that spreads to the stands and his teammates: "

, but when he plays he puts his soul like a leader", say those who know him best.

He had soccer blood since he was a child, when he dreamed "that an entire stadium with white shirts was yelling at me", but maturity has found it with fatherhood and the pandemic.

The first, personified in her son 'Beni', which has made him see "that

".

The second, in the 'click' that arrived at the beginning of 2021, after overcoming several muscle injuries that did not allow him to start regularly.

Undisputed in 2022

At that time he also began to work with a 'coach' who helped him, according to those closest to him, to listen more to the people around him, including his technicians and physiotherapists in Madrid.

A necessary change that has resulted in his football explosion in Chamartín.

Since February of this year he has been a starter in 22 of 27 games and has appeared in the starting eleven in all Champions League games since the second leg against PSG in the round of 16 last year.

"I started with a coach because I told myself:

," he told EL MUNDO.

His end of the season has convinced (even more so) Madrid to put the non-transferable sign on him.

Several

teams , such as

, have tried to knock on his door, but the Uruguayan's agents have refused the request.

They do not even want to negotiate despite the blank checks, aware of Valverde's desire to become captain of the Madrid team.

"

", repeats Ancelotti.

His versatility, being able to play in the center of the field or as a right winger, and the new virtue of the goal make him the central axis of Madrid in the present and in the future.

places him as the 24th player with the highest market value (70 million) tied with

, second in Madrid after

(100) and third in LaLiga after

(80).

But his value goes beyond numbers.

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