€3m market value 

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Premier League and Champions League leaders Arsenal look set to have a quiet January transfer window in terms of incomings. Perhaps expected after Mikel Arteta’s team laid out €295 million to sign eight first-team players in the summer. The biggest winter transfer stories around Arsenal seem to be emerging on outgoings, with teenage attacking midfielder Ethan Nwaneri set to go to Marseille on loan and Oleksandr Zinchenko closing on a permanent move to Ajax, after a failed loan spell at Nottingham Forest. However, one future star the Gunners are heavily tracking is Real Madrid’s 18-year-old defender Víctor Valdepeñas. He has a current market value of €3 million.

According to reports, Arsenal have been monitoring the youngster since October, but with a contract that runs until 2029, the ball is in Real Madrid’s court at this stage. Valdepeñas came through the Los Blancos youth system, having been signed from Rayo Vallecano when he was just 12 years old. He made his first-team debut against Deportivo Alavés in December, starting the game and playing 78 minutes in a 2-1 LaLiga win. Valdepeñas is capable of playing at both centre-back and left-back and that versatility is likely to be attractive to Arteta. With expert insight from Spain, we bring you more on the young defender.

Who is Víctor Valdepeñas?

Iván Fuente is one of Transfermarkt’s Content Managers in Spain and is located in the capital of Madrid. He has been watching Valdepeñas closely and tells us more about the young defender: “He is a player who can play at both left back and centre-back. He is left-footed, tall in stature (1.88m), and very fast. Some reports say he can run at over 34 kilometres per hour and is considered one of the most physically talented players in Real Madrid’s youth academy.”

“His performances on the wing are particularly noteworthy, where he demonstrates great stamina,” Fuente continues. “He has already made his debut with the first team.” At this stage, it would seem unlikely that Arsenal could get a deal over the line this winter, but seeing younger stars depart as become somewhat of a them at the Bernabéu in recent years, as Fuente explains: “Real Madrid are not opposed to letting their youth players leave the club, but usually on the condition that they can be bought back in the future, as in the cases of Nico Paz and, previously, Dani Carvajal, to name two examples.

“But it would be surprising if they let him go to a club like Arsenal, which surely would not accept such a buy-back clause.”Valdepeñas also has somewhat of an eye for a goal, certainly for a defender, scoring four goals for the various Real Madrid youth teams across just 46 games. Arsenal signed another young defender from Spain last summer in Cristhian Mosquera, who arrived from Valencia for €15 million last summer, and made a good impact before getting injured in December. Perhaps they could dip back into that market once more and lure Valdepeñas from the Santiago Bernabéu to the Emirates.