Jesus Vallejo, the forgotten football player from Real Madrid who is ready to start over
For a long time Jesus Vallejo was the forgotten man in Real Madrid.
When the club went through an injury crisis last season, with Dani Carvajal, David Alaba and Eder Militao due to injury, the center-back still played only 10 minutes of competition football between August and mid-May.
He played in the last three games of Madrid, after their season was effectively over and they had no chance to win La Liga.
Now the 28-year-old member of Albacete has become and is ready to get his career back on track.
In an exclusive interview with The Athletic, Vallejo talks through the highlights and lows of life in the world's biggest club, how he deals with offside by Carlo Ancelotti and what it was like to play alongside Cristiano Ronaldo and give his no 5 shirt to Jude Bellingham.
Vallejo broke in the first team in Real Zaragoza while he was only 17. He debuted in the 2014-15 season when the club was in the second level of Spain, and within a year he was a captain and was bought for € 5 million ($ 4.3 million/$ 5.8 million) by Real Madrid.
“The coach of Zaragoza (then Ranko Popovic) told me to believe more in myself, he told me that when he saw things in me that I had to believe it. He was a very daring coach,” Vallejo tells the athletics.
At that time, the defender was considered one of the most promising players in football and he became captain of the teams under 19 and under 21. Before moving to Bernabeu, he spent the 2015-16 season on loan with Zaragoza and 2016-17 in Germany Frankfurt.
“I remember that Madrid encouraged us (young players) to go to the Bundesliga because Dani Carvajal was doing so well (in 2012-2013 with Bayer Leverkusen). It is true that I did not see in the beginning, maybe I would rather stay in Spain.
“We had a beastly previous season at a physical level of training, many double sessions. That is when the coach (Niko Kovac) needed people with desire and he put all the young players in the place. It is a football that is comparable to Real Madrid because it is a lot of transitions, but not very tactical, because you have arrived in Spain.
When Vallejo arrived in the Bernabeu in the summer of 2017, the team was led by stars such as Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Sergio Ramos and coached by the legendary Zinedine Zidane.
That group had just won two Champions League titles in a row and completed a beautiful Treble by winning it again in his first season in the club. Vallejo played 12 times for Madrid that season, including once in the Champions League.
Despite the fierce competition for a place in the starting line-up, the Spanish defender remembers with affection: “Those first few years he gave me a leading role and in the training he gave me a lot of confidence. Zidane told me that roles can change. I enjoyed it, and I felt integrated.
“It is true that I suffered a period of injuries, but it was a good season, a season of initiation. I had to be everything ready; that was my philosophy.”
After Madrid had lifted their 13th Champions League in Kiev after he defeated Liverpool 3-1, both Zidane and Ronaldo suddenly left the club. Madrid fans were in a shock state and their side struggled in the 2018-19 season and finished third in La Liga, eliminated in the semi-final of Copa del Rey and lost in the round of 16 in the Champions League.
“It was difficult enough with the departure of Cristiano because of the goals. There has been a large void that took time to replace. He was a leader, not only on the field, but also outside the field. I even tried to copy some of his routines on a daily basis.
“He would arrive in the dressing room beforehand, (but) before training, he did not do much physical work. After that he would do more power work at home, but he prioritized to work on the field earlier. He knew when he had to push and when he didn't have to push. In that sense he was very professional.”
In 2021, when Vallejo returned to Madrid after a succession of loan spells in Wolverhampton Wanderers and Granada, he was in a new winning team. But this time it was Thibaut Courtois, Karim Benzema and Vinicius Junior who led the team to their 14th Champions League title.
It was a season in which Vallejo played a small part under Ancelotti and only eight performances appeared. The defender was still one of the heroes in the semi -final against Manchester City, for his approvals to prevent an equalizer in the last minutes of extra time. It was one of Madrid's epic comebacks that season (they won 6-5 on Aggregate, 3-1 in the second stage in the Bernabeu).
“It was all very fast. I remember warming up the touchline against the city, they told me to play and be powerful in the duels. In the dressing room I remember the party, the people who went crazy (…) I played better games, but that was the most decisive games.
“From the outside I understand the spectator who was surprised that I had not played for a long time and suddenly I played that day. Look, although it seems like a joke, I thought I could really play in every game. That is what did play well because if I am broken, it is impossible.
“Sometimes it is inexplicable, even for those of us who were in the team. You could see that the opposition was sometimes tactically superior, in terms of opportunities … But there was a mix of things: that Courtois was spectacular that year, that the team always believed that they were very united, and then the opponents fell apart with a goal.”
In his decade with Real Madrid, Vallejo was also confronted with a few bad times.
One of the most obvious is his lack of competitions (only 35 performances in Madrid in all matches during the five seasons he spent at the club), as a result of which he forced two loan spells in Granada (2020-21 and 2023-24).
“If you leave on loan, there are some players who stay and you have a bit of a disadvantage. You also think that I might have been able to stay (instead of loan) because a lot of departure in the 2022-23 season,” says the defender about reflection. “Last year, on the other hand, it was logical to try to help the team and to give my last service to the club before he left.
“I left with the feeling that it is a pity that the season is now over. I remember players who were exhausted, and I was physically fresh. It makes you angry to say:” Oh, I wish I could have come earlier, I wish I could have played more games. ” But I am happy that I played at the end of the season, I could have stayed without playing matches. “
“If I paid too much attention to that emotional roller coaster (social media), I would probably have a bad time.
“So I remained neutral and then I tried to have a good relationship with the press in the stadiums, in the different opportunities to speak, such as the mixed zone. I enjoyed that more than social media.” Sometimes I see social media as dangerous for young society because many people believe everything that is said there and they spend many hours a day – what is healthy.
When Vallejo decides to switch off, it is not unusual to find him in Loscos, his mother's birthplace in the province of Teruel in East Spain. The area is known as “empty Spain” because it is so quiet.
“In my village there was not even internet reporting. Seeing the people who live and work there, with my cousin, who is a farmer, reminds me of my childhood. I have spent my summer there and I still have the same friends,” says Vallejo.
“It's more about people than the city. It's how I make more contact with who I am, I come from the football player because we don't talk much about football with my family. Every now and then it's good to see that there is more in life than football.” Another thing that Vallejo helped to deal with the more difficult moments of professional football is therapy.
“I remember that I was working with a psychologist and also at an earlier stage in Madrid; it has been very good for me. I don't know if it is the coach himself or a figure of the club that focuses on sports psychology, but it is important that you have the energy to go out and train in the morning when you get up, that you enjoy,” he says.
“It has given me accurate to know what things I like to do. What I have discovered is that I like the sport, football itself, the game, the association with teammates. That is why, despite playing not, I have been able to manage it well because I am focused on other things. Everyone has to discover what they feel comfortable to develop.
“But you don't discover that in an instant. I discovered it through injuries, bad moments, having a hard time, not enjoying training. Fortunately I discovered that I like this world of football, but in my own way.”
There is one teammate from Madrid who has been close to Vallejo and supported him at the club during his time.
“Without a doubt, Carvajal. He is a man who has helped me a lot since I arrived. Now, last year, I have also been very close to him. He is a man who will undoubtedly become a captain: he is a natural captain, he has congenital leadership.”
But there is also a new generation of players who were in the lead in Madrid, and Vallejo speaks very high about Federico Valverde and Bellingham, the player he gave his NO 5 shirt when he came to the club.
“Fede Valverde is a leader, a competitor who is very shy in the dressing room but who completely changes on the field. He wants to play everything, he is contagious, a man who goes the farthest distance for the team who wants the least recovery days. He goes to pull the cart (from the Madrid team) for many years.
“I remember that she signed Jude and the club and the club told me that Jude de Nr. 5 liked Zidane. I needed nothing else, I told them that of course I would love to give him the no. 5. A minute later Jude sent me a long message in English that was very emotional.
“Then, personally during the preseason, he thanked me a lot. He is a man who looks much older than he is. He has a very good mentality, I was delighted to give him the song before he met him and even more after I got to know him.”
But Madrid is now for Vallejo in the past. He was not called up for the club World Cup and took the time to weigh all the options on the table.
“I was on vacation this summer and I really loved the atmosphere there. I was in Los Angeles, in the Grand Canyon, and I was very comfortable. You always have to listen to everyone, but now I see it as a long way in my career.”
Eventually the defender Albacete, a city 259 kilometers from Madrid and located in Castilla-La Mancha, where the famous character Don Quixote comes from and where the legend Andres Iniesta of Barcelona started his youth career.
Vallejo was announced on a billboard in the city center, with hundreds of fans who shouted with enthusiasm when seeing the player's face.