A safe place for Cyclone Valverde

Among many other things, football is geography, established according to a complex system of places, often diffuse, difficult to discover in an apparently limited space.

In its standard measurement, a playing field measures 105x68.

It is a limited continent, but full of secrets that require skill and wisdom to recognize them, and a good guide if necessary.

Let's say then that Carlo Ancelotti has led Fede Valverde into a territory that he has seized with exceptional vigour.

Finding a place for Valverde in football was easy.

He stood out so much as a youth in Peñarol that several European clubs tried to sign him before joining the first team of the Uruguayan team.

Real Madrid was ahead of everyone.

He arrived in Spain when he was 17 years old.

Seven passed and it was more difficult to find a place for him in the field.

Pablo Bengoechea and Jorge Polilla Da Silva, two illustrious Uruguayan soccer players, aware of the progress of that youth, affirmed that they had not seen an equal talent in their country, which in these matters is synonymous with maximum fertility.

One problem with Valverde was the internal competition that he found in the team, supported by a mythical line of midfielders: Modric, Casemiro and Kroos.

Reaching those summits

represents an

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The stones of Fede Valverde

Another problem was of contradictory order.

His versatility worked against him.

For several years, Valverde has been a footballer in search of a position, a safe place to settle.

From his first days at Castilla and his brief stint at Deportivo, Valverde toured the entire map without definitively settling in any of them.

A midfielder by nature, he played as a winger and even as a central defender for Castilla led by Solari.

Sometimes billed as a likely successor to Casemiro, he later acted as a central midfielder.

He also officiated as a 10, a false

and a false

.

So much nomadism did not favor him.

He was labeled dispersed.

You could see the player inside, but not the place to install it and take advantage of all its conditions.

Perhaps Carlo Ancelotti was the most suitable coach to find him a safe place on the field and in the team.

Perhaps the Italian coach recalled a player with similar characteristics in the Milan-Liverpool final, that of the famous comeback of the English team, championed by an irrepressible Steven Gerrard.

Valverde refers to Gerrard for his power, stride, driving quality, resistance to fatigue, verticality and an explosive mid-range shot.

In each of those respects, his ceiling was sky-high.

More complicated it seemed to gather all the qualities, adjust them and allow them to express themselves without fear.

Due to shyness, lack of confidence or excessive respect, Valverde did not let go.

Or they didn't let him go.

Ancelotti gave him a place and hierarchy in the final weeks of the last season.

If it was necessary, and at many times it was, in the case of the Paris final, the coach structured the system to enhance Valverde's ownership and growing influence from the right sector of the field, of which he has become the absolute owner.

Ancelotti has given him the place to shine and the confidence to unleash his full potential.

As a result, an extraordinary player has emerged.

It is often said of Valverde that the field is too small for him, but it is more likely that the Uruguayan footballer has finally recognized his true dimensions as a footballer.

In recent months, he has tidied up the many qualities that previously emerged in bits and pieces, without losing any of his expressiveness on the field.

On the contrary, from the cyclone Valverde emerges in each game an increasingly complete, rigorous and fine player, a midfielder definitely established as a figure, vital for Real Madrid and more than fearsome for rivals.

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