Manuel Ángel and David Jiménez: The Next Stars to Leave Real Madrid
Inside Valdebebas, two players train as if a debut is coming. In reality, a goodbye is getting closer.
Manuel Ángel and David Jiménez keep working at full tilt in “La Fábrica”, fully aware their next steps will be taken far from Real Madrid. The club has already pulled them out of Castilla’s friendlies and competitive games, a clear sign that their departure is no longer a question of if, but when. The message is obvious: no risks, no injuries, not with decisive moves on the horizon and serious interest from LaLiga, Segunda and clubs around Europe, as reported by AS.
They are the next names on a long, lucrative list.
Manuel Ángel, the brain of the treble generation
Manuel Ángel was close to the exit door a year ago. Levante pushed hardest, Aston Villa came in strong as well, yet the midfielder chose to stay, to lead one more season under Álvaro Arbeloa and then López de Lerma.
He did not waste it. Captain’s armband on his sleeve, influence all over the pitch, and a late-season promotion in status that took him closer to the first team. Seven appearances, 129 minutes, just enough to show that his rhythm and vision belong at a higher level.
Now 22, 1.70m tall and a Real Madrid player since 2014, he stands as one of the standout talents of that famous treble-winning generation guided by Arbeloa, a group that also featured 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”.
That is his game. He does not dominate through size, but through ideas. He reads spaces, dictates tempo and, crucially, uses both feet with the same confidence. He hits free kicks with his right and with his left, to the point that people inside the club joke that even he no longer knows which is his stronger foot.
Twelve years after arriving at Valdebebas, the curiosity around him has turned into concrete interest. The expectation now is simple: offers will arrive, and Manuel Ángel will finally step out of the academy and into a new chapter.
David Jiménez, Arbeloa’s right flank on legs
From the thinker in midfield to the weapon on the wing.
David Jiménez, part of the same treble generation, built his reputation bombing down the right. In that remarkable season he racked up close to 20 assists, a full-back playing with the ambition and numbers of a winger.
Inside Valdebebas they call him Arbeloa’s “right-hand man” on the pitch and talk about “the best right foot in the academy”. Corners, free kicks, wide deliveries – he owns them. He attacks like a winger, threatens constantly in the opposition half, and keeps the ball with the calm of a central midfielder.
“He surges forward with all his might, he has the personality of a leader and the touch of Carvajal,” is how they define him in the academy. The description fits. His character mirrors Arbeloa’s: intense, demanding, competitive. Arbeloa was his childhood idol and later his most vocal supporter.
Born in 2004, a Madrid youth player since 2013 and standing at 1.70m, Jiménez closed last season with 153 minutes for the first team, 91 of those under Xabi Alonso. It was not a huge sample, but it was enough to leave a clear impression on the coaching staff.
He has grown inside the Real Madrid bubble. Now he looks ready to burst it. All he needs is the right proposal to turn that potential into a fully-fledged professional career elsewhere. Inside the club, there is quiet confidence that the offer will come.
A factory that prints talent – and money
While Manuel Ángel and Jiménez wait, the calculator at Valdebebas keeps ticking.
Real Madrid’s academy sales have already hit a record 199 million euros. Once the exits of these two are sealed, the total will smash through the 200 million barrier, confirming what many inside the training ground predicted weeks ago: a “historic summer” for La Fábrica.
The 10 million euros from the Jacobo Ortega deal pushed the tally to the brink. The rest of the list reads like a who’s who of recent academy standouts: 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).
On top of that, there is strong interest in more names – Sisteró, Yáñez, Juan Martínez – while the club smartly keeps percentages of future sales for many of those who have already left. Sporting project and business model, tightly intertwined.
Inside “La Fábrica”, the pattern is clear. Stars are forged, sold, and often circled back into the elite. The next to step out are already known: the mastermind in midfield and the relentless right-back.
Where they land will say a lot about how far this treble generation is really going to go.
