Fede Valverde has gone from being a substitute at Real Madrid to one of the club’s most important players in just under two years.
The Uruguayan midfielder is Carlo Ancelotti’s third most used player (1,522 minutes) this season, behind only David Alaba (1,536) and Vinícius (1,668), according to Relevo.
This season Valverde has already scored eight goals from midfield, the highest tally of his career, and he has discussed some of the off-the-field factors that have helped him along the way.
What has been the key to Valverde’s growth?
“It has been a bit of everything. The maturity I’ve gained over the years, sharing a dressing room with star players. Spending time with a lot of players makes you open your mind,” he said in an interview on the YouTube channel “Juego Sagrado“.
Valverde has a life coach and a nutritionist, two important people in his everyday life. “The things that happen in my job, I want to face them and change them myself. There are times when we don’t let go of everything with the partner we have or with the family and with this person I open up more, I listen more, I try to keep growing and I think that’s what gives me the strength to keep improving as a footballer, as a person and to face everything that playing for Real Madrid involves,” he explained.
“To become what I am today, everything went hand in hand: the coaching, the nutritionist…”
GSFN | Kieran Quaile
