Valverde Federico
Federico Santiago Valverde Dipetta is a Uruguayan professional footballer who plays as a midfielder for the Uruguay national team. Valverde was born on 22 July 1998 in Unión, a neighbourhood in the capital city of Montevideo, to Julio Valverde and Doris Dipetta. He has one older brother, Diego, and two step-brothers, Pablo and Matías Castro. Valverde is of Spanish and Italian descent and became a naturalised Spanish citizen in 2020 after receiving his Spanish passport. Valverde started his youth career with his local neighbourhood club, Estudiantes de la Unión. He then tried out for Peñarol a few years later and was scouted by Néstor Gonçalves. Considered one of the best midfielders in the world, he mainly plays as a central midfielder but is also able to play as a defensive midfielder and occasionally a right-back. Valverde began his professional career with Peñarol in 2015, winning the Uruguayan Primera División in his first season. In 2016, he joined Real Madrid, initially playing for the club’s reserve team. He made his first-team debut in 2017 and has since gone on to make over 300 appearances for the club, winning three La Liga titles, two FIFA Club World Cups, two UEFA Champions League titles, two UEFA Super Cups, and the Copa del Rey. Valverde made his international debut for Uruguay in 2017, and has since represented his country at three Copa América tournaments (2019, 2021, 2024) and the 2022 FIFA World Cup.
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In July 2016, Valverde was transferred from Peñarol to Real Madrid, initially being assigned to their reserve team Castilla. Two months later, he made his debut for Castilla against Real Unión, in a game which his team eventually lost. He became a regular member of the Castilla line-up his debut season, and scored his first goal against Albacete in December 2016. In regards to his growing importance to the team, Santiago Solari, his coach at Castilla, said on 29 January 2017, “I’m very happy with him. He has adapted very well to the club and country. Valverde always generates a lot of football in midfield.” On 22 June 2017, Valverde was loaned to La Liga side Deportivo de La Coruña for one year. Upon returning from loan, Valverde impressed new manager Julen Lopetegui during the 2018–19 pre-season and was definitively assigned to the first-team. On 23 October 2018, Valverde made his official Real Madrid debut in the UEFA Champions League Group stage against Viktoria Plzeň at the Bernabéu at just 20 years old. He made 25 appearances and won the FIFA Club World Cup in his first season with the first team. Valverde was awarded the Silver Ball at the 2017 FIFA U-20 World Cup as Uruguay finished fourth in the tournament. Valverde was called up to the Uruguay senior squad in August 2017. The same year on 5 September, he marked his debut with his first goal against Paraguay.[50] Valverde was named in Uruguay’s provisional 26-man pool for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, but left out of the final 23-man squad. Valverde was included by manager Óscar Tabárez in the final 23-man Uruguay squad for the 2019 Copa América in Brazil. In the quarter-finals against Peru on 29 June, a goalless draw after regulation time had the match go to a penalty shoot-out, Uruguay lost 4–5 and was eliminated from the competition. He was also included in the final 23-man squad for the 2021 Copa América and 2022 FIFA World Cup.
