Jesus Vallejo will be promoted to the Real Madrid first-team for next season.
The highly-rated central defender hasn’t yet played a senior game for Los Blancos despite joining the club from Real Zaragoza in the summer of 2015 as he’s spent the last two successive seasons out on loan.
In the campaign just gone he moved abroad and spent a year with Eintracht Frankurt and the Bundesliga outfit have confirmed that the 20-year-old is to return to the Santiago Bernabeu this summer and will challenge Sergio Ramos, Raphael Varane as well as Nacho for a first-team spot.
As a result of Vallejo’s recall, not only will he be apart of the senior squad under Zinedine Zidane for the 2017/2018 campaign but is viewed as the direct replacement for experienced centre-back Pepe who officially departs at the end of the month upon the expiry of his contract.
The Spaniard has been tipped for a bright future and it was reported late last year by the Daily Mail that he had been selected as “the chosen one” by Zidane therefore his recall shouldn’t serve as too much of a surprise.
Filling the shoes of Pepe will no doubt be a tall order. The Portuguese defender has been an important part of Madrid’s defence for over a decade and was impressive in their Champions League final win over Atletico Madrid in the 2015/2016 season.
In this season just gone he suffered numerous injury problems and in the meantime Vallejo’s stock was rising during his loan spell in Germany.
He won more aerial duels than any player aged 23 or younger across the entire Frankfurt squad across 25 appearances, while he recorded 69 interceptions and made 101 clearances.