Aurélien Tchouaméni clears up his clash with Fede Valverde

Two days before the Clasico, Aurélien Tchouaméni has revisited what happened last season with Federico Valverde, after the well-known bust-up that led to internal sanctions at Real Madrid. The midfielder, in comments collected by As, says there was no physical fight: “there was no fight between Valverde and me,” and stresses that “I never hit Valverde.”

He does admit that “yes, it’s true that something ugly happened,” but links the fallout to the club’s media spotlight: because it’s Real Madrid, even minor incidents “get blown up” until they become a massive story. He adds that what “wasn’t necessarily a problem” ends up turning into one.

Tchouaméni also says that after the commotion, people contacted him to ask what had happened and that he had to be discreet to calm things down: “you have to be very discreet.”