The Real Madrid youngster who crossed the divide from Atletico – and caused a rift

Real Madrid have suffered a host of injuries this season that have forced manager Carlo Ancelotti to turn to the academy at times — but one of their prospects cannot get a look in.

The 17-year-old right-back Jesus Fortea has yet to make a senior appearance for the club, despite Dani Carvajal having been ruled out with a serious knee injury earlier this season and his deputy, Lucas Vazquez, struggling at times. Federico Valverde has filled in there, too, but will not play in tonight’s Copa del Rey semi-final first leg against Real Sociedad — Ancelotti wants to give the Uruguay international a rest following a hamstring problem.

Fortea is a player for Real’s under-19 team, so perhaps his lack of opportunities should not be a surprise. But the youngster was once labelled Carvajal’s successor and has not even played for the club’s ‘B’ team, Real Madrid Castilla. He has had to watch while fellow academy players Raul Asencio, Jacobo Ramon, Lorenzo Aguado, Diego Aguado, Gonzalo Garcia and Chema Andres have all made their senior debuts this season.

Fortea’s case is even more unusual given Los Blancos signed him from Atletico Madrid in 2022, breaking a so-called ‘pact of non-aggression’ with their city rivals and leading to a rift between the sides. Now there are serious doubts about Fortea’s future — his deal expires in 2026 and it is unclear whether he will renew. It is no surprise clubs across Europe are closely monitoring his situation.

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Fortea played for Levante’s academy in his home region of Valencia from 2014 to 2019. He attracted interest from several clubs before joining Atletico and three years later, in 2022, he moved to the other side of Madrid, to Real, to become part of the youth setup.

Fortea’s signing caused plenty of controversy. As he was under 16, Los Blancos did not have to pay a transfer fee for him, which led to anger behind the scenes at Atletico. They even took Fortea’s parents to court (as Fortea was a minor) to try to claim a fee for his exit, but the judge ruled Atletico were not entitled to this. Atletico declined to add anything when contacted for this article.

It also meant Real broke a verbal agreement made by the presidents of the two clubs, Florentino Perez and Enrique Cerezo, more than 15 years ago, when both agreed they would not poach the other’s players at youth level. The former Real Madrid and Liverpool right-back Alvaro Arbeloa, who is now Juvenil A (under-19) manager at Real, pushed for the move to happen and Fortea signed until 2025, the maximum allowed as a minor.

“I think this is the moment I have to leave to get closer to fulfilling my dream,” he wrote on Instagram in his farewell to Atletico, expressing his gratitude to the club that had been his “home” for the previous three years.

At the time, it was verbally agreed that the deal would be extended for another year until 2026, which was announced in March 2024.

Fortea was labelled ‘the new Carvajal’ by many inside and outside the club (Angel Martinez/Getty Images)

Everything went smoothly at first for Fortea. He was labelled ‘the new Carvajal’ by many people inside and outside the club and made a strong impression from the very start at Real’s Valdebebas training complex. Despite being part of the Cadete A under-16 team, he made his debut with Arbeloa’s under-19 side, three teams above his age, in February 2023.

The initial plan was for Fortea to be promoted to Castilla in 2024, but at the end of last season, the club informed him he would remain with the under-19s. The new roadmap included the defender also alternating between Madrid’s ‘C’ team in the fourth tier of Spanish football and the Castilla team managed by club legend Raul, but he has made just five appearances for the ‘C’ team and none with Castilla.

Last summer, Fortea and his entourage grew restless after he was not included in the group of 11 youth players who went on the first team’s pre-season tour of the United States. Some of those who did make the trip included Asencio, Lorenzo Aguado and goalkeeper Fran Gonzalez.

The situation worsened in October when Carvajal suffered his serious knee injury. That meant Ancelotti would only have one senior right-back in Vazquez, who himself is a converted winger, and some within the club inevitably looked to the academy and to Fortea.

But despite multiple reports in the Spanish press suggesting Fortea would be elevated to the first team, multiple club sources — who, like all those cited in this article, asked to remain anonymous to protect relationships — told The Athletic this would not be the case.

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The reality was that Ancelotti began looking for in-house options to solve the right-back problem and this included Fortea. “We want to see him for two weeks in our context and decide,” one coaching-staff source said.

Fortea did train with the first team, joining up with them before the first Clasico of the season in October. Some saw that as a hint to his future involvement and a firm commitment to the youngster, but Fortea has not returned to Ancelotti’s training sessions since playing in two Under-19 European Championship qualifiers with Spain in November.

The Italian and his staff were surprised by the media reports — some of which came from within the club — insisting that Fortea would stay with the first team.

“It’s not so easy to make the leap that (academy centre-back) Joan Martinez was making until the injury (an anterior cruciate ligament injury that ruled him out at the start of the season) or Pau Cubarsi has made with Barcelona,” a Valdebebas source said. “The context of the Juvenil A (team) is completely different to ours, they are dominating with the ball in almost every game and that means there is practically no defensive work.”

People close to Fortea recognise he is not ready for the first team but regret that the club have not made the gesture of giving him a first-team call-up.

They have grown increasingly uneasy with his lack of minutes for Castilla or the ‘C’ team. Despite players regularly switching between those two sides and the under-19s, Fortea has yet to make his debut for Raul’s reserves.

Castilla coach and Madrid legend Raul has yet to give Fortea his debut with the reserves (Diego Souto/Getty Images)

Those within Castilla say this is due to a problem with players for eligible slots. Spanish Football Federation (RFEF) regulations dictate that Castilla must always have seven players from their regular setup on the pitch in their third-tier matches. They have suffered several injuries this season and have lost players to the first team given their own availability crisis, meaning they have had to give priority to positions that are less well covered. The situation has been so stark that on some matchdays, the substitute goalkeepers have worn outfield players’ kits in case they need to be called upon out of goal.

But there are differing opinions on Fortea within the club, with some arguing he is not yet ready to play for Castilla. The main argument to justify this is his defensive weaknesses, which academy sources say have been evident in his limited appearances with the ‘C’ team.

Those club sources also admit they may have set expectations too high and that the changing of teams has not helped the player stabilise. Despite initial excitement around Fortea, they say he needs to develop gradually — similar to Asencio and Lorenzo Aguado, who spent a season with the ‘C’ team before being promoted to Castilla and this season rising to the first team.

Despite all that, those within the club only have good words to say about him and do not see him as an academy player with a problematic personality. “His attitude has been very good, without giving any problems and without making a bad face,” a senior academy source says.

Boardroom sources who work at the academy are hopeful Fortea will renew his deal in the coming months. Contact between the two parties is not expected to begin until the end of March when Fortea will turn 18. If no agreement is found, a summer exit could be a possibility — as happened with Paulo Iago, the now-17-year-old midfielder who moved to Lisbon’s Sporting CP last year.

But everyone wants Fortea to stay and, if not, the offer would have to be an enticing one that leaves Los Blancos with plenty of control over his future. Fellow right-back Alex Jimenez, for instance, left for Milan in 2023 on loan with an option to buy that the Italians exercised last year. But Real still have a right of first refusal on the youngster and buy-back clauses of around €9m in 2025 and around €12m in 2026.

And there are positive signs for Fortea in that the process has not yet been escalated to the club’s director general, Jose Angel Sanchez, who tends to intervene in specific cases with academy players where situations have become entrenched.

But Fortea, a boyhood Real Madrid fan whose priority is to stay, is not happy. And after so much intrigue over his arrival, it is worth keeping a close eye on what happens in the coming months.

(Top photos: Getty Images)