Dani Carvajal’s Farewell: Who Will Replace Him at Real Madrid?
Dani Carvajal’s farewell to the Bernabéu is more than a goodbye to a right-back. It closes a decade-long chapter of snarl, scars and silverware down Madrid’s right flank – and opens a question the club cannot dodge: who comes next?
On Saturday, against Athletic Club, the captain will pull on the white shirt for the last time. With him goes a bundle of intangibles that never show up in the metrics: the snarling competitiveness, the dressing-room authority, the big-night calm. Losing that is one problem. Replacing his position is another.
Trent Alexander-Arnold is expected to remain the first-choice right-back, the headline act in that corridor. But the depth chart behind him is thin. The market offers names, not solutions. Inside Valdebebas, they admire Pedro Porro at Tottenham and Diogo Dalot at Manchester United. They also understand reality: those deals are currently seen as out of reach, whether on cost, context or simple feasibility.
So the gaze turns inwards.
Fortea: the prodigy who broke a pact
In La Fábrica, they still remember the noise when Jesús Fortea arrived. Real Madrid broke the long-standing non-aggression pact with Atlético Madrid to prise him from their academy. That does not happen on a whim. It happens when a club is convinced it has spotted something rare.
He was 15 then. They called him Carvajal’s natural heir before he had even unpacked his boots.
Now 19, 1.75m tall and bold on the ball, Fortea plays the position with the instincts of a winger. He runs high, runs hard, and treats the touchline as a runway. His game leans heavily towards attack: fast, skilful, always looking to drive forward. Defensively, he still needs polishing. The duels, the positioning, the timing – all the things Carvajal turned into a craft over years of elite football – remain a work in progress.
His path has not been the straight-line rise that early hype suggested. Instead of moving directly up to Castilla, he was kept with Real Madrid C, a decision that left him in limbo and forced him to fight for every step. When he finally joined Castilla, he initially struggled to nail down the right-back spot.
He found a way through. Fortea forced himself into the team picture and became a key figure in the Juvenil A side that lifted the UEFA Youth League. Those nights, against Europe’s best academies, hardened his reputation as one of the brightest gems in La Fábrica.
Madrid see him as a long-term investment. His contract runs until 2029. The message is clear: they believe in the talent. The question is whether they believe he is ready to live in Carvajal’s shadow from next season.
Jiménez: the quiet captain
If Fortea is the headline act, David Jiménez is the quiet constant in the background.
He arrived at La Fábrica in 2013 from Móstoles URJC, a boy who idolised Álvaro Arbeloa and studied the art of unglamorous defending. Over the years he has climbed each rung of the academy ladder, never loudly, always steadily, until the captain’s armband at Castilla ended up on his arm.
Inside Valdebebas, they talk about his professionalism before they talk about his crossing. About his attitude before his assists. He is described as a complete team player, the silent leader who holds things together without demanding the spotlight.
On 17 December, his patience was rewarded. Jiménez made his first-team debut in the Copa del Rey against Talavera, under Xabi Alonso. It was not a ceremonial cameo. He has since added three more appearances, including a start against Valencia – a fixture that tests temperament as much as technique.
At 22, he is not the dazzling prospect. He is the reliable option. Solid, rarely spectacular, a defender whose mistakes you struggle to remember. The comparisons to Nacho Fernández come easily: a club man, tactically disciplined, rarely the star, almost never the problem.
For a coach, that profile can be gold. Especially across a long season when rotations, suspensions and injuries expose the soft spots in a squad.
A choice that says everything
Real Madrid now stand at a familiar crossroads. Do they trust the academy and promote from within, or do they wait for the market to bend in their favour?
Alexander-Arnold’s presence buys them time but not immunity. A season is long. Carvajal’s departure removes a leader, a competitor and a safety net. Behind the Englishman, someone will have to live with the weight of the badge and the scrutiny of every miscontrolled ball.
Fortea offers upside, adventure and the promise of a future star if his defensive game catches up with his attacking instincts. Jiménez offers certainty, balance and the comfort of a player who already behaves like a veteran.
The club could still pivot and look outside. But if they stay true to the current thinking, one of these two will walk through the door that Carvajal is about to close.
Whoever it is will not just be filling a position. He will be stepping into a lineage on the right flank of the Bernabéu – and into a role that can define the next decade of Real Madrid’s back line.
