But, the Uruguayan’s route to becoming one of La Liga’s best midfielders hasn't come without hardship and overcoming adversity.
Growing up in a family of ‘hustlers’ as Valverde likes to call it – he doesn’t like to consider his upbringing as being from that of a poor family who made many sacrifices – the now-26-year-old spoke of his childhood in a sit-down piece with The Players’ Tribune last year, and briefly discussed how he had a trial with Premier League giants Arsenal as a teenager.
He would ultimately choose a different route, despite being under pressure to move to north London which has seen him nominated on the 30-man short list for the 2024 Ballon d’Or. Here's the story of Valverde's rise and why he turned down a move to Arsenal.
The Beginning Wasn’t So Easy
Valverde had to overcome hardship early on in his life
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In his earlier years, Valverde felt the wrath of what comes along with playing football, even at grassroots level, with him admitting that he felt embarrassed at the prospect of his teammates coming over to his house because his family only had the three free-to-air TV channels.
That, combined with him constituting a bed as a mattress on the floor in a corner of a dark room which had springs that would trap him to the point of needing to call for help to get up, and hearing cockroaches crawl around the room in the dead of night, makes for horror movie-esque imagery.
But, he would use those emotions around his home circumstances as fuel for when he stepped onto the field, with the ultimate goal of wanting to change his family’s fortunes forever.
As can often happen when undergoing any significant change in circumstances, though, turning professional for Valverde also changed his personality, with him even admitting that he felt that he “was a God” after he signed his first professional contract.
But before he made the move from Uruguayan outfit Peñarol, based in his hometown of Montevideo, to Real Madrid, Valverde attracted interest from a plethora of top European clubs, including Arsenal.
"When I turned professional with Peñarol at 16, I thought that I was a God. I don’t think people understand how crazy it is to go from being a nobody to walking down the street in your city and all of a sudden you have grown men wanting a selfie with you. You’re getting DMs from girls who wouldn’t even look at you last week. Everybody wants to be your friend. Even if you have great parents like mine, it’s impossible not to stray off the path."
What Could Have Been
Valverde trialled with Arsenal at age 16 but felt uncomfortable in England
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It is no secret that Valverde was sent to trial at Arsenal when he was 16-years-old. Despite the club’s prestige and rich history, North London was worlds apart from what he was used to growing up in Uruguay, and England was never where he really wanted to be.
His reasoning for this doesn’t have to do with the Gunners itself, more the outside pressure from the business-side of professional sport, with those around him trying to get inside his head about what life could be like for him if he were to make the 15-plus hour flight over to the United Kingdom to kick-start his career. Valverde explained that he felt like a “hostage” at that point in his life, due to the way certain individuals wanted to force him into financially beneficial decisions, regardless of how he felt.
"The business side of football took over. Certain people were telling me, 'Who wouldn’t want to go play for Arsenal? You want to stay here in Uruguay? That’s crazy!' What they were really saying under their breath was, 'We can all make a lot of money if you go.'
You realize that your life is not your own in football. Especially at a young age, you feel more like a hostage. Even your family becomes a hostage. Football is an escape to a better life, especially for us in South America, and the vultures know that. They put the pressure on you in a 'nice' way. Damn, Fede, if you go to Arsenal, you’ll have a nice bed and a shower that stays warm for 30, 40 minutes! Who wouldn’t want that life?"
In the end, all it took was one week for him to be convinced that he didn’t want to play for the club because of how much he'd miss his family. But, then Real Madrid came calling, and they were willing to relocate his family too, and it was a meeting which would ultimately signal the beginning of fulfilling a lifelong dream for young Fede, with nobody then knowing how it would alter the trajectory of his career, and his life as he knew it.
"They sent me on trial to London for a week, and I just wasn’t comfortable. If you only think of material things, it sounds great. But we are not robots. The reality was that my family couldn’t come to London with me. I’d have to live alone, not speaking the language, at 16 years old. For every one kid who succeeds moving overseas, you don’t see the 100 who fail. I was either crazy enough or courageous enough to say no. Give me freezing showers as long as I can stay with my family."
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