No club in world football holds their players to a higher standard than Real Madrid, and that’s one of the reasons why they are the most successful club on the planet in the Champions League, having just won their second UCL title in the last three seasons under Carlo Ancelotti.
So when Real Madrid fans see a player in their squad that isn’t remotely good enough in comparison to his peers, alarm bells start ringing. It doesn’t matter if they barely play and it isn’t even anything personal against the player; it’s just that Madridistas believe everyone in the squad needs to be there for a reason.
A couple of years ago, Real Madrid had trouble convincing Mariano Diaz to leave, as the third-string striker stuck around on a contract nobody wanted to take on. Mariano’s case was nobody’s fault but the club’s for signing him to such a deal in the first place, clearly overestimating his talent after one positive season in Lyon.
Now, Real Madrid have a new priority player to sell, and that is center back Jesus Vallejo, who, funnily enough, was already someone the club wanted to get rid of while they were desperately trying to transfer Mariano.
Injuries helped Vallejo stay off the radar and catch less heat than Mariano, but the biggest thing working in his favor were a string of strong performances as an emergency center back in the Champions League knockouts en route to Real’s 2021/22 title triumph.
That has all worn off now, though, and Vallejo sits in the Real Madrid squad as a 27-year-old veteran whom, per Diario AS, nobody at the club sees as being remotely at the level necessary for the club. Even Carlo Ancelotti reportedly wants nothing to do with him.
Real Madrid have an injury crisis at center back, but Vallejo is so discarded by the coach that he still won’t get games. Carlo gave him one last chance to prove himself off the bench against Deportivo Alaves, and in 10 minutes with him on the pitch, Real nearly blew a 3-0 lead, surrendering two goals.
Vallejo was once a promising young center back who shined in the Bundesliga for Eintracht Frankfurt, but aside from a brief blip in the Champions League in 2022, it has all been downhill for him.
AS reported that Real Madrid tried to get Vallejo to leave this past summer, but he refused. Now, he is taking a spot in the squad from an academy player who could do more with those minutes, grow, and likely already be a better performer anyway.
In 2025, there will be a few Real Madrid players on the chopping block, but those players are all good enough to be in the Merengue squad. Vallejo, unfortunately, is not, and, in truth, he has never been.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.