Real Madrid's Manuel Ángel and David Jiménez on the Verge of Major Transfers

Inside Valdebebas, two players train as if everything depends on tomorrow, while knowing their Real Madrid story is already turning its final page.

Manuel Ángel and David Jiménez keep working at full tilt in “La Fábrica”, but their next minutes of real consequence will come in another shirt. Offers are circling from Spain’s top two divisions and from abroad. The club knows it. The players know it. So much so that Madrid have pulled both out of Castilla’s friendlies and competitive fixtures, a protective measure to avoid any injury that might wreck decisive moves, as reported by Spanish outlet AS.

This is not just about two departures. It is about a factory that has become a gold mine.

With academy sales already at a record 199 million euros, Manuel Ángel and Jiménez are expected to be the next names on a list that has turned this summer into a financial landmark for Valdebebas.

Manuel Ángel: the mastermind ready to step out

Manuel Ángel already flirted with the exit last summer. Levante pushed hardest, Aston Villa also came knocking, and several other clubs joined the chase. He stayed. One more year. One more shot at breaking through.

He did not waste it.

Under Álvaro Arbeloa and then López de Lerma, he wore the captain’s armband and closed the season edging closer to the elite, collecting seven first-team appearances and 129 minutes that left a clear impression: his level is above the third tier.

Now 22, 1.70m tall and a Real Madrid player since 2014, he stands out as one of the leading figures of that famous treble-winning generation coached by Arbeloa, a group that also featured Nico Paz, Gonzalo, Palacios and Jacobo Ramón. Arbeloa’s verdict on him has echoed around the academy: “a player who completely changes the course of a match”.

He does it without towering over anyone. He does it with his brain and his feet.

Small in stature, he rules midfield with his reading of the game and a rare two-footed comfort. Free kicks? Right or left, it barely matters. Inside the club they joke that “even he himself does not know whether he is right-footed or left-footed”.

Twelve years after walking into Valdebebas, the admiration is turning into something more concrete. Interest is expected to harden into formal bids in the coming days and weeks, opening the door for him to start the next chapter of a career that no longer fits inside the academy.

David Jiménez: Arbeloa’s right-hand man on the flank

If Manuel Ángel is the mind, David Jiménez is the surge.

The right-back grew up alongside him in that same treble generation and almost hit 20 assists in that standout season. From the touchline, Arbeloa barked instructions; on the pitch, Jiménez carried them out. Many inside the academy call him the coach’s “right-hand man” and insist he owns “the best right foot in the academy”.

His profile is clear: an attacking full-back, relentless in the opposition half, a constant threat on set pieces and a defender who treats the ball with the calm of a central midfielder.

“He surges forward with all his might, he has the personality of a leader and the touch of Carvajal,” is how they sum him up at Valdebebas. His strong character mirrors Arbeloa’s, the man who went from childhood idol to one of his fiercest supporters.

Born in 2004, in the academy since 2013 and also 1.70m tall, Jiménez closed last season with 153 minutes for the first team, 91 of them under Xabi Alonso. Those minutes were enough to leave a mark on the technical staff: a young full-back with the personality to play higher and the tools to stay there.

Now he waits, like Manuel Ángel, for the move that will finally push him beyond the Real Madrid bubble. Inside the academy, few doubt that spark is close.

A summer that breaks the 200 million barrier

Their exits will not just free two lockers. They will rewrite a balance sheet.

Once the deals for Manuel Ángel and David Jiménez go through, Real Madrid’s academy sales this summer will smash past the 200 million euro mark. The 10 million euros from the Jacobo Ortega transfer have already taken the total over 199 million, and the next moves will push the figure into uncharted territory.

People at Valdebebas had been whispering about a “historic summer”. That phrase now looks like an understatement.

The club are not only cashing in. They are also keeping slices of future resale rights on many of these players, betting that the graduates of “La Fábrica” will keep rising in value far from the Bernabéu.

The outgoing list is already 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)
• Fran González (3 million)

Interest remains strong in others such as Sisteró, Yáñez and Juan Martínez.

Real Madrid have built a squad to compete for everything at the top while turning their academy into a revenue machine. The next test is obvious: how many of these names, starting with Manuel Ángel and David Jiménez, will come back through the front door one day, not as promises, but as finished products?