During his six years with Real Madrid’s first team, Valverde has enjoyed an impressive career, but the move from Uruguay’s Peñarol to Spain was not an easy one for the midfielder; after all, even Castilla – for whom he played for a year before being loaned out to Deportivo La Coruña for a season – was a whole different world.
“It was incredibly embarrassing; it completely knocked the wind out of me. I thought: ‘I don’t know what I’m doing here’,” recalls Valverde of his early days in the Royal Club’s youth team. “When I arrived at the car park, I noticed that my Castilla teammates had really fancy cars, and I could barely afford a decent one, even though I was already playing in the top flight for Penarol.”
He started to wonder: "What on earth have I got myself into? I went into the changing room and saw really expensive designer clothes there," Valverde continued. "I didn’t want to get undressed at all, or I’d get undressed really quickly so that no one would see me. It was a rude awakening."