After serving as captain in Uruguay’s match against England at Wembley and scoring the equalizer, his teammates are left in awe of the player’s quality.
Federico Valverde is the vice-captain, star, crack, and “everything” of Uruguay, and that is how he was received by his teammates this week during this gathering in Watford ahead of today’s friendly against England’s Bellingham at Wembley.
The absence of Josema Gimenez from the starting lineup allows “El Halcon” to wear the captain’s armband at the English temple in a match that comes right after his great performance against Atletico, capped off with that red card that continues to generate discussion.
There are no doubts. Fede, who, due to his modesty and simplicity, does not seem it, is the idol and reference of a national team in which, against England, he will earn his 72nd cap. A statistic that confirms Fede’s form in 2026 is that in this season, Fede has the same number of goals, eight (four in La Liga, three in the Champions League, and one in the Supercopa), as he had in his previous 71 matches with Uruguay.
Today, he will face Jude Bellingham, although in London, they do not expect the Madrid player, due to his recent injury, to start against Uruguay, though he will have minutes as a Plan B. What is clear is that Tuchel will rest the likes of Kane, Rice, and Saka for the second friendly against Japan.
Yesterday we were at Uruguay’s training camp in Watford, and a reflection of what is thought in Uruguay was the words we gathered from fullback “Guille” Varela: “Fede sets the bar very high for us Uruguayans. What he is doing is not normal; to stand out like that among the stars he plays with.
He is the captain of Real Madrid and is very important there. Sometimes what Fede Valverde does at Madrid is normalized, but it is something from another planet.”
For his part, fellow fullback Joaquin Piquerez was no less effusive: “Fede has been showing for a long time that he is among the best players in the world. That is why we have to take advantage of him in Uruguay and build on his play. We have to take advantage of the fact that he is on fire and everything is coming off for him to try to get a positive result against England.”
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