{"id":19695,"date":"2026-05-09T00:18:54","date_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:18:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/19695\/"},"modified":"2026-05-09T00:18:54","modified_gmt":"2026-05-09T00:18:54","slug":"real-madrid-fines-valverde-and-tchouameni-half-a-million-euros-each-for-altercation-6","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/19695\/","title":{"rendered":"Real Madrid fines Valverde and Tchouam\u00e9ni half a million euros each for altercation"},"content":{"rendered":"

BARCELONA, Spain (AP) \u2014 Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on Friday for their altercation during practice<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The massive fines came a day after the midfielders tussled when the team trained. Valverde said in a post on social media on Thursday that no punches were thrown. But Valverde knocked his head on a table and he suffered a small cut that required a brief hospital visit.<\/p>\n

On social media, Valverde initially called it a \u201cmeaningless fight\u201d with a teammate and said \u201ceverything has been blown out of proportion.\u201d<\/p>\n

His employers, however, considered it a significant enough breach of team discipline to nail both Valverde and Tchouam\u00e9ni with fines that bite even the bank account of a top soccer player. The half-a-million euro penalties reflect the reputational damage the club was enduring in a chaotic end to a disappointing season.<\/p>\n

In a statement, the 15-time European champion said its disciplinary action was concluded after both players expressed to the club \u201ctheir complete remorse for what happened and apologized to one another.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madrid added they also apologized to their teammates, the coaching staff and club supporters, as well as showing their willingness to accept whatever disciplinary action the club deemed \u201copportune.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tchouam\u00e9ni was back training with Madrid on Friday, two days before they play at Barcelona in a clasico. Madrid has to win otherwise Barcelona will be crowned La Liga champion<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After being notified of the fine, he posted a public apology to the club and its fans on social media.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat happened this week in training is unacceptable,\u201d Tchouam\u00e9ni wrote. \u201cI say this while thinking about the example we are expected to set for young people, whether in football or at school.<\/p>\n

\u201cAbove all, I am sorry for the image we projected of the club.\u201d<\/p>\n

Valverde was not at practice due to the head knock.<\/p>\n

Both players are set to play in the World Cup<\/a> next month, with Tchouam\u00e9ni playing for France and Valverde for Uruguay.<\/p>\n

Chaotic end to a poor season<\/p>\n

The run-in between the players, who for seasons have played side by side in Madrid\u2019s midfield, came after they argued this week in previous training sessions. But tempers boiled over on Thursday. Spanish media was rife with reports that the players previously disagreed over the club\u2019s decision to let coach Xabi Alonso go<\/a> after just months on the job.<\/p>\n

It was not the only altercation involving Madrid players during training this week. \u00c1lvaro Carreras confirmed he was in a \u201cminor\u201d incident with a teammate. Spanish media said he and fellow defender Antonio R\u00fcdiger got into a scuffle.<\/p>\n

\u00c1lvaro Arbeloa, the coach who was promoted from Madrid\u2019s reserve team when Alonso was fired in January, will face tough questions on what went wrong inside the changing room when he gives a press conference on Saturday ahead of the clasico at Camp Nou.<\/p>\n

Madrid is facing a second consecutive campaign without a major trophy amid rumors in the Spanish media that club president Florentino P\u00e9rez is considering bringing back Jose Mourinho to straighten out his underperforming team.<\/p>\n

___<\/p>\n

AP soccer: https:\/\/apnews.com\/hub\/soccer<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BARCELONA, Spain (AP) \u2014 Real Madrid slapped players Federico Valverde and Aur\u00e9lien Tchouam\u00e9ni with half-a-million-euro ($588,000) fines on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":19696,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[10354,10353,92,223,640,1693,4297,82,83,1743,396],"class_list":{"0":"post-19695","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-madrid","8":"tag-antonio-rdiger","9":"tag-aurlien-tchouamni","10":"tag-barcelona","11":"tag-fc-barcelona","12":"tag-federico-valverde","13":"tag-florentino-perez","14":"tag-jose-mourinho","15":"tag-madrid","16":"tag-real-madrid","17":"tag-soccer","18":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19695","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=19695"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/19695\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19696"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=19695"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=19695"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/spain\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=19695"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}