Federico Valverde adds goals to repertoire as Real face Atletico in Madrid derby

Before the season began, Real Madrid manager Carlo Ancelotti set his talented young midfielder Federico Valverde a challenge. “If you aren’t capable of scoring 10 goals in a season, I’ll tear up my coaching licence and retire,” the Italian joked to the Uruguayan.

The motivation is evidently working. In this, Valverde’s fifth season in Madrid’s first-team squad, he has already matched his best tally – three goals – for a single campaign, and will go into Sunday’s city derby against Atletico with a pair of spectacular strikes fresh in his memory.

Against Mallorca last weekend, he ran from midway inside his own half, swerved past opponents to their right and their left before unleashing a piledriver to launch a comeback from behind that ended with Real winning 4-1.

On Wednesday, with Madrid struggling to assert themselves against RB Leipzig in the Champions League, he thundered in another left-footer to set the European champions on a path to a 2-0 triumph.

As eye-catching as the goal was the celebration – fists clenched, knees bent, voice roaring. “Nadalesque”, the newspaper El Pais called the gesture, put in mind of Rafa Nadal, the tennis superstar and ardent Madridista.

Ancelotti liked the emphatic expression of joy from the 24-year-old, who, he said, sometimes conceals his broad range of skills. “He’s been scoring with his left foot,” noted Ancelotti of the last two Valverde wonderstrikes, “He’s got a great shot on him, but I’d never seen him shoot with the left.”

So another box is dutifully ticked in the expanding skill set of Valverde, a footballer whose development at Real has been a grand tour of different positions – from full-back to midfield-anchor, to playmaker, to winger, and an exercise in diligent patience.

R