The Real Madrid midfielder on how growing up in Uruguay shaped him as a footballer and facing Liverpool in the return leg
“And they play in black and blue,” Fede Valverde says, “Everton blue.” The Real Madrid midfielder is laughing now. Last week was not, it turns out, the first time he had played against Liverpool; it wasn’t even the first time he had beaten them. That was five years ago: 30 March 2016, Uruguayan clausura, Peñarol v Liverpool Fútbol Club at the Estadio Campeón del Siglo. “There’s a difference, though. They’re not pronounced the same: Uruguay’s is Liverpúl,” he says, stressing the final syllable, before revealing the colours and the score: “One-nil, goal from Carlos Valdez.”
Valverde was 17; within four months, having played 13 games for Peñarol, he had signed for Madrid, heading to another world. A league champion in Spain, he watched on television as 6,166 miles away Liverpool, the name inspired by the ships docking in Montevideo, finished top of the 2020 clausura, the first title in their 106-year history. “They played very well, deserved it. They’re a good club who bring through youth. Their ground’s very nice, the grass is good.”
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I had to decide whether to continue studying or play football, as I missed a lot of school. To make it, I had to leave
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