Manuel Ángel and David Jiménez: Next Talents Leaving Real Madrid
Inside Valdebebas, two players train as hard as anyone, but everyone knows they are already halfway out the door.
Manuel Ángel and David Jiménez keep pushing through sessions at La Fábrica, waiting for the call that will finally take them away from Real Madrid. Interest is not the problem. There are suitors from LaLiga, from the Segunda, and from elsewhere in Europe. The problem is choosing the right step.
The club’s stance makes their situation crystal clear. Both have been frozen out of Castilla’s friendlies and competitive fixtures, a protective measure to avoid any injury that might derail a transfer. With academy sales already bringing in a record 199 million euros, they are next in line after Jacobo Ortega, according to Spanish outlet AS. One more deal, then another, and the academy’s summer business will crash through the 200 million barrier.
Manuel Ángel, the brain of the treble generation
Manuel Ángel has been on the verge of leaving before. Last summer he was close. Levante pushed hardest, Aston Villa also came knocking, but the midfielder decided to stay one more year.
He did not hide. Under Álvaro Arbeloa and later López de Lerma, he wore the captain’s armband and ended the campaign stepping up to the first team. Seven appearances, 129 minutes. Not much on paper, but enough to show that his rhythm and vision belong at a higher level than the reserves.
Now 22 and 1.70m tall, Manuel joined Real Madrid in 2014 and quickly became one of the standout names of that famous treble-winning generation led by Arbeloa, alongside Nico Paz, Gonzalo, Palacios and Jacobo Ramón. Arbeloa once summed him up in a single line: “a player who completely changes the course of a match”.
He does it without towering over anyone. He dominates through his head and his feet. Both of them. He hits free kicks with his right and with his left, so often and so cleanly that people inside the club joke that “even he himself does not know whether he is right-footed or left-footed”.
Twelve years after walking through the doors at Valdebebas, the admiration has turned into concrete interest. Now everyone expects that attention to turn into formal offers. His next step is no longer a theory; it is a matter of timing.
David Jiménez, Arbeloa’s right-hand man on the pitch
If Manuel is the mind, David Jiménez is the surge down the flank. Another product of that same treble generation, the right-back racked up close to 20 assists in that extraordinary season.
At Valdebebas they call him Arbeloa’s “right-hand man” on the pitch and talk about “the best right foot in the academy”. The description fits. He is an attacking full-back in the purest sense: aggressive in the final third, dangerous on every set piece, and calm enough in possession to look like a midfielder when the ball reaches his feet.
Inside the academy they paint a vivid picture of him: “He surges forward with all his might, he has the personality of a leader and the touch of Carvajal.” His temperament mirrors Arbeloa’s own, the man who went from childhood idol to one of his strongest advocates.
Born in 2004, at the club since 2013, the 1.70m defender closed last season by collecting 153 minutes with the first team, 91 of them under Xabi Alonso. Those minutes were enough to leave a mark on the coaching staff. He has seen enough, and shown enough, to feel ready to break out of the Real Madrid bubble. All he needs now is the spark of the right offer. Inside the academy, nobody doubts it will arrive.
A historic summer at La Fábrica
The financial backdrop is staggering. Once the exits of Manuel Ángel and David Jiménez are sealed, Real Madrid’s academy sales this summer will soar past 200 million euros. The 10 million euros from Jacobo Ortega’s move have already pushed the total over 199 million.
At Valdebebas, some had already whispered about a “historic summer”. That prediction is playing out in real time. The club has cashed in heavily on its homegrown talent while smartly keeping a percentage of future sale rights for many of them.
The list of departures is long and lucrative: Nico Paz (60 million euros), Gonzalo (40 million), Víctor Muñoz (20.5 million), Gila (15 million), Álvaro Rodríguez (12.5 million), Álex Jiménez (12.5 million), Palacios (10 million), Jacobo Ortega (10 million), Fran García (4 million), Mario Martín (3 million) and Fran González (3 million). Interest is also strong in Sisteró, Yáñez and Juan Martínez.
Amid those figures, Manuel Ángel and David Jiménez keep training, waiting. For Real Madrid, they are the next profitable chapter in an unprecedented summer. For the two of them, they are the first page of a new career.
