Fede Valverde, the Uruguayan warrior who shouts his tackles as if they were goals

In Russia 2018, Federico Valverde He was one of the great marginalized of the World Cup list of Uruguay. “It hurt me, but that helped me improve as a footballer”, he told in an interview. And nothing more true than reality. From then on, the ‘Pajarito’ flew higher and higher in his career and today he is the brightest star of the Uruguayan team in Qatar 2022. However, despite his status as a star, the midfielder failed to illuminate his team in their World Cup debut as he wanted.

Valverde, today, is the player who generates the most enthusiasm for the Uruguayan people. His great present at Real Madrid supports him. Not coincidentally he is one of the most valuable midfielders in the world. 100 million euros is what he is currently worth and only Phil Foden surpasses him in that sense (€110 M).

That is why any coach has it well referenced when facing it. He is the player to nullify and overcome. But it is almost always difficult to achieve it.

“Valverde is a fantastic player, of extraordinary technical quality, with a physical dimension… He can be considered with De Bruyne as one of the best midfielders. He has a great influence on the way Uruguay plays and from medium distance he can solve a game. They are very strong collectively and individually.”, warned Paulo Bento in the preview of Uruguay vs South Korea. And he was right.

The Real Madrid midfielder was quite close to tipping the balance in favor of his team with a powerful shot from outside the area, to which we are accustomed. Bordering on 90 minutes, the ‘Pajarito’ got rid of a South Korean to launch a ‘missile’ that crashed into the post of the rival goal. Unfortunately, fortune was not on his side.

But he is a warrior. Because when there were no chances to attack, you had to defend with your heart. For this reason, at the moment of sweeping against an opponent and thus stopping him from a dangerous counterattack, he celebrated it as if it had been a great goal. Obviously, the charrúa claw runs through all his veins.

It was a good individual game for Valverde and his statistics reflect it like this: 89% accuracy in their passes (56/63), three shots, two key passes and four of six games won, according to SofaScore. However, he could not guide his team to victory, which he most wanted.

Beating Korea was key, as Portugal and Ghana would come next, two extremely difficult rivals. The classification to eighth of the charrúas can be in danger, but Fede Valverde is the great hope of the country of him. The Madrid midfielder knows very well that he has a great weight on his back and, surely, he will take it with a lot of responsibility. It is not for less. He will fight until the end, like a good warrior, for the pass to the next roda.