Manuel Ángel and David Jiménez: Waiting for Their Next Step from Valdebebas
Inside Valdebebas, two players keep training as if a debut were around the corner. In reality, the door is about to close.
Manuel Ángel and David Jiménez report every day to “La Fábrica”, work at full intensity, and then step aside when the matches arrive. No friendlies, no official games for Castilla. Real Madrid have parked them on the sideline, not out of punishment, but protection. Any injury now could wreck the transfers that are expected to take them away from the club they grew up in.
Interest is not the problem. It is everywhere: from Spain’s Primera and Segunda to several European leagues. They are simply waiting for the right offer, the right project, and the right moment to walk out of Valdebebas for the last time.
All this comes in the middle of a historic summer in the academy offices. Real Madrid have already banked 199 million euros from youth sales, a record figure that will burst through the 200 million barrier once Manuel Ángel and Jiménez complete their moves. Jacobo Ortega’s 10 million euro transfer was the latest big piece; the next two are already lined up.
Manuel Ángel, the mastermind in midfield
Manuel Ángel could have left a year ago. Levante pushed hardest, Aston Villa tried to take him to England, and other clubs circled. He stayed. One more season. One more chance to climb inside Madrid’s structure.
Under Álvaro Arbeloa and then López de Lerma, he wore the captain’s armband and grew into the reference point of that treble-winning generation. The reward came at the end of the campaign: seven first-team appearances, 129 minutes that confirmed what many at Valdebebas had been saying for years — his level belongs higher than the third tier.
Now 22 and 170 centimetres tall, Manuel has been in the academy since 2014 and is considered one of the jewels of Arbeloa’s famous “treble” group, alongside Nico Paz, Gonzalo, Palacios and Jacobo Ramón. Arbeloa once defined him as “a player who completely changes the course of a match”. Inside the club, that line stuck.
He does not dominate games with size, but with brain and balance. He reads space, dictates tempo and, above all, uses both feet with a rare ease. He takes free kicks with his right and with his left, so often and so well that people at the training ground joke: “Even he himself does not know whether he is right-footed or left-footed.”
Twelve years after he first walked into Valdebebas, the interest that has surrounded him is finally expected to turn into concrete bids. His next step will not be a loan to survive. It will be the start of a new career away from the white shirt.
David Jiménez, Arbeloa’s right-hand man
If Manuel is the mind, David Jiménez is the surge. Same generation, same treble, different weapon.
Jiménez is a right-back who finished that extraordinary season with close to 20 assists. The numbers alone explain why so many inside the academy refer to him as Arbeloa’s “right-hand man” on the pitch and talk about “the best right foot in the academy”.
He lives in the opposition half. He attacks like a winger, delivers set pieces like a specialist, and keeps the ball with the calm of a central midfielder. The internal description is as flattering as it is clear: “He surges forward with all his might, he has the personality of a leader and the touch of Carvajal.”
His character mirrors that of Arbeloa, his childhood idol and later one of his main protectors. Born in 2004, Jiménez joined Real Madrid in 2013 and, like Manuel, measures 1.70 metres. Last season he collected his first-team minutes — 153 in total, 91 of them under Xabi Alonso — enough to leave a mark on the coaching staff and convince many that he is ready to step beyond the academy bubble.
He is not seen as a prospect who still needs years of seasoning. He is seen as a player waiting for the spark that will ignite his professional career somewhere else. Inside Valdebebas, there is calm confidence that the spark is coming.
A factory that now prints millions
All of this unfolds against a backdrop that would have sounded wild a decade ago. Real Madrid’s academy, once criticised for not producing enough first-team regulars, is now a financial engine.
With Ortega’s 10 million euros already added, the club stands at 199 million in academy sales. The exits of Manuel Ángel and Jiménez will push the total past 200 million, confirming what many at Valdebebas whispered at the start of the window: this would be a “historic summer”.
The list of departures is striking. 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 other academy products such as Sisteró, Yáñez and Juan Martínez.
Real Madrid are not just cashing in. They are also keeping slices of future sales, protecting upside in case any of these players explode elsewhere. The sporting debate is obvious: how many of these talents might have helped the first team in the long term? The financial answer, at least for now, is clear.
As Manuel Ángel and David Jiménez wait for the call that will take them away from the pitches where they grew up, Valdebebas hums with a new reality. “La Fábrica” still produces footballers — it just also happens to be one of the most profitable lines on Real Madrid’s balance sheet.
