Ciudad Real Madrid

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Lore & Background

The facility replaced the old Ciudad Deportiva, which was in use until 2003. The sale of Ciudad Deportiva, under the auspices of Real Madrid president Florentino Pérez, generated a net profit of around €270 million after taxes and costs. Inaugurated in 2005, the complex is nicknamed 'Valdebebas' by players, trainers, and club staff, named after the district where it is located.

In Their Own Story

Morning light filters through the mist over Valdebebas, illuminating the silver spire of the Ciudad Real Madrid headquarters. Inside, the corridors are quiet, the only sound the soft footsteps of players and staff moving between training pitches, medical rooms, and the gym. A young academy player pauses before a glass case holding a replica of the 1956 European Cup, his eyes tracing the gold lettering. Outside, the rhythmic thwack of a football being struck cuts through the silence—a sound that has been a constant since the complex opened in 2005. A veteran first-team player walks past, offering a silent nod to the boy: a wordless transfer of responsibility from one generation to the next. The air smells of cut grass and ambition.

Reader's Guide

The training centre includes academy offices, equipment rooms, audio-visuals rooms, a strength and rehab centre, medical facilities (examination rooms, treatment rooms, rehab facilities, and a hydrotherapy center with hot and cool pools, a cold plunge, and a resistance wave pool), and training facilities with 12 and one third fields: three full-size synthetic turf fields and four full-size natural grass fields for youth, and for the first team, one third full-size synthetic turf field and three full-size natural grass fields. It also includes the Alfredo Di Stéfano Stadium where Real Madrid Castilla plays its home matches. The first team residential building is 8300 square meters, with 57 rooms across first and second floors, each with lounge area and terrace, plus a cinema, dining room for 54, common rest area, climate-controlled pool, reception, two guest rooms, and several common terraces. The youth team residence has 40 double rooms with balcony and private bathroom, common dining room, common rest areas, and classrooms for academic education; it houses players aged 10 to 18. In the middle of the 2015–16 season, the basketball division received their own sports facilities at Valdebebas, with a new training pavilion having four simultaneously usable tracks (one for the first team, rest for field teams). Ciudad Real Madrid covers 1.2 million square meters total, of which only 270,000 square meters had been developed as of 2017.

Did You Know?

• The complex is known to players and staff as 'Valdebebas'.
• The sale of the old Ciudad Deportiva earned Real Madrid a net profit of around €270 million after taxes and costs.
• The youth residence houses players aged between 12 and 18.
• The basketball division got its own facilities at Valdebebas at the start of the 2016–17 season.