With practically a third of this League consumed, the present and the immediate future of Jesús Vallejo could not be more gloomy in sports. This Sunday he returns to Granada, where he started last season, being little less than an element of props in this Real Madrid 2021-22. He has played zero minutes in the league, not one. In Champions he has not received much more. Only three Pyrrhic minutes, in Kiev, when Madrid crushed Shakhtar 0-5 …
It is last in line after 12 rounds of the white team and begins to remain alone among the almost 500 players that make up the First team. There are only ten other outfield players in the entire League who are still, like Vallejo, to be released: Saponjic (Athletic), Umtiti and Dembele (Barcelona, the last of them, injured), Illarramendi (Real Sociedad, injured), Alex White (Valencia), Sabaly (Betis), Ander Capa (Athletic), Miguelón (Spanish), Blesa (Lift) and Bouquet (Osasuna).
A radical change of habits for Zaragoza. At this stage of last season, while he was on loan at Diego Martínez’s Granada, he had already acted in 582 minutes. Garters and another 180 ‘more in the Europa League. Another world.
The problem is not just Vallejo, it also splashes Real Madrid. In 2019 he extended his contract extensively, which now ends in 2025. A very long relationship for a footballer who, at the age of 24, He barely has 20 games on his CV as a Real Madrid player. The rest, between injury pests, is limited to 85 games in the elite divided between his assignments in Granada (51), German Eintracht (27) and his brief period in English Wolverhampton (seven games). In the shadow of the Alhambra has had the best recent moments of his career, but In Madrid he does not quite fit in and it seems that there is a galaxy of distance between the trio of central Alaba-Militao-Nacho and him.
Competition grows … from below
In fact, Ancelotti’s initial plans were for the center room to be a castillista. The competition was to be between Victor Chust and Mario Gila, which the Italian liked in the reports he received on his return to Chamartín. But the club, given the departure of Ramos and Varane and the difficulty in finding a destination for the ex-zaragocista, chose to give Vallejo a card in the white squad. Even now there are centrals that in Castilla de Raúl are rearing their heads with impetus. Of the most powerful Marvel to the recent hierarchy showing Rafa Marin. Kids who ask for passage in tests such as the Copa del Rey, the natural refuge of those who are having fewer opportunities in the first team. More bad news for Vallejo.