‘People need to understand that there’s no problem’ – Aurélien Tchouaméni on his altercation with Real Madrid teammate Federico Valverde | OneFootball

For a variety of reasons – and not necessarily good ones – the 2025–26 season will go down as one that Real Madrid will be keen to forget. And that goes for both on and off the pitch. The altercation between Aurélien Tchouaméni (26) and his teammate Federico Valverde (27) is one such example.

Just days before El Clásico against FC Barcelona, a violent brawl reportedly broke out between the two men. Things got so heated that Valverde had to go to hospital after sustaining facial injuries during the scuffle. An account contradicted by Tchouaméni a few weeks later, who at the time expressed regret that the media had blown the incident out of proportion. A point the midfielder revisited in an interview with L’Équipe, on the sidelines of France’s World Cup opener against Senegal on Tuesday.

“What bothered me were the false stories that came out about what actually happened. There’s nothing I can do about that,” added the former AS Monaco player. “The most important thing is that in the dressing room, we stay calm and relaxed. A lesson? It’s that no matter what happens in your life, the problem is never as big as you think it is. Like everything else, today we’re talking about this, tomorrow we’ll be talking about something else.”

“People really need to understand: there’s no problem,” continued Tchouaméni, when asked about the particular nature of a hypothetical future match between France and Uruguay. “There’s all sorts of things that happen in a dressing room. We shook hands when he came back and we’re continuing to work together.”

GFFN | Léo Aschi