The situation
Vallejo does not lower his arms. His gesture, loaded with professionalism, indicates that the center-back is not resigned to his residual role in Madrid. He has renounced the holidays that Ancelotti has given to non-World Cup players and is going to train with the Castilla players, under Raúl’s orders, so as not to lose form and aspire to change his status when club football resumes very soon. End of the year. Vallejo is aware that, after this restart, there will be a few months full of matches, with five competitions at stake (League, Cup, Spanish Super Cup, Champions League and Mundialito) and that there are many unknowns in the air about what the state of play will be. form not only of the World Cup, but also of those who were not, since it remains to be seen how their legs respond after this great winter break on which, at least in Spain, there are no precedents. Vallejo will be, for sure, ready for action.Vallejo has not traveled a path of roses since Madrid signed him in 2015. He paid five million to Zaragoza (one less than what his clause stipulated), then, for a truly promising center-back. He was not in vain the captain of the U-19 team. To begin with, Madrid decided to loan him out to Eintracht so that, following Carvajal’s example at Leverkusen, he could get his start in the Bundesliga. And he did it by playing 27 games. However, his return to Real Madrid did not go as expected. In the following two seasons (2017-18 and 2018-19) he only played 12 and 7 games. The white club has always believed in him a lot and the proof is that he decided to renew him in the summer of 2019. He signed until 2025 and, with the idea of cooking him permanently for the elite, he was loaned to Wolverhampton. Things did not work out, and in January 2020 it was announced that he was leaving England to go, again, on loan to Granada. In the Nasrid city he completed two good seasons, the best of his career as a professional. But his last return to Madrid has been fraught with obstacles. Not even his very special finale last season has served as a turning point.He started four of the last five days of the League championship (which had already been decided) and left a great image in the five minutes he had to play in the epic final of the second leg of the Champions League semifinal against City. Now, at 25 years old and with a contract until 2025, Vallejo still aspires to have a bigger showcase at Madrid. That is why he chose to stay in the summer, and that is why he has rejected the holidays, and is training with Castilla.
The obstacles of Alaba, Militao, Rüdiger and Nacho.
Vallejo’s life in Madrid has been complicating in recent years, the contracts that have been made. Today he is the fifth center back behind Militao and Alaba, both the starting theorists, Nacho, and also from Rüdiger, the last to arrive. First Alaba and then Rüdiger. In the last two campaigns, these two world-class central defenders with a proven track record have arrived who have definitively closed the door of prominence for Vallejo.To date and this season, Alaba is the one who has played the most minutes (1,226 spread over 21 games). The Austrian is, in fact, the one who has played the most together with Vinicius. They are followed by Militao (1,301 minutes in 17 games), Rüdiger (1,001 in 17) and, finally, Vallejo, who has only been able to play 17 minutes against Celtic, the least in the squad with the exception of the unprecedented Odriozola.