The 'Real' Madrid Fall: Inside Story Of Drama, Dressing Room Discord And Super-Star Culture
Behind Real Madrid's awful 2025-26 season is a dysfunctional and toxic dressing room atmosphere. There has been severe tension brewing for some time.
After Real Madrid's dramatic meltdown in the La Liga season, after their loss to Barcelona on Sunday night that led to the later winning their 29th La Liga title, the big news making headlines in Spain is that Jose Mourinho has been approached to take over as their next head coach. An awful season of uncertainty, literal fighting, personality clashes and squabbling egos came to an inglorious virtual close. Real's last big win was 2023-24 Champions League. Since then, the dressing room atmosphere has significantly deteriorated. On the pitch, the team's performances have become more and more disjointed.
Inspired by Marcus Rashford Barcelona trounced Real Madrid to win their 29th La Liga title on Sunday night. Real Madrid Coach Alvaro Arbeloa said shortly after the defeat that the players needed to put collective before individual. That is pretty much the basic for every team sport. There wasn't much of an explanation offered to the fans.
Behind Real Madrid's awful 2025-26 season is a dysfunctional and toxic dressing room atmosphere. There has been severe tension brewing for some time.
Reports had come of Antonio Rudiger's altercation with fellow defender Alvaro Carreras at Madrid's training ground earlier last week
Did their star striker Kylian Mbappe insult a coaching-staff member during a practice game? That was in the news too.
The Nasty Dressing Room Fight
Last Wednesday news broke of a clash, once again in training between midfielders Federico Valverde and Aurelien Tchouameni, who have been team-mates since 2022.
On Thursday, it got even more outrageous when reports emerged that these two players were involved in a dressing-room fight that ended with a bleeding Valverde being knocked unconscious and taken to hospital. On the same day the club released a statement saying "disciplinary proceedings" would be opened against Valverde and Tchouameni. Valverde though did not verify the sequence of events.
Media Storm Over Mbappe
Last night the Coach spoke about the importance of Kylian Mpabbe. He is the top goalscorer for Real Madrid this season with 24 goals in 28 appearances. The French Captain was unable to take the field due to a thigh injury. But this isn't the first instance because a storm has been brewing since Mbappe took a controversially-timed break in Sardinia with his actress partner Ester Exposito, while the French attacker was supposed to be working hard to recover from a hamstring injury in time for El Clasico. The French superstar landed in the Madrid airport shortly before his team's away match at Espanyol.
This coincided with news of his involvement in a flare-up with a member of Arbeloa's staff during a training exercise. Reports were that the forward spoke insultingly towards a coach who had called him offside while acting as an assistant referee during a practice game.
Tension In The Camp Not New
The atmosphere in the club has been tense for a while. Even after Xabi Alonso was appointed as the head coach early last summer, some senior players like Vinicius Junior rebelled against his methods.
The Club bosses blamed Alonso for his inability to control the dressing room and bring order. There were reports of power struggle and the access of the entourages around the team's star players.
Then they promoted Arbeloa as the reserve team manager and sacked Alonso in January. A sizable chunk of players were unhappy with how things have played out. There are clear discords between Arbeloa and the players too.
Enter Mourinho Next
There are talks of the possibility of Jose Mourinho taking over as the next head coach. He is club president Florentino Perez's preferred candidate. For now Mourinho is in Benfica and any agreement will require around 3.5 million USD release fee being paid.
That said, Madrid's 79 year old president is keen on rebuilding the side that that is going through worst of times. They are set to end a second consecutive campaign without winning a major trophy such as La Liga, the Champions League or the Copa del Rey.
Can Jose Mourinho commit to a turnaround time if he is given the job?
The answer lies in him reading records from Carlo Ancelotti's exit interview carefully where he had warned that the group had become 'very difficult to manage'. The answer perhaps also lies in the team requiring some high-profile exits to remove tensions between team-mates, and also free up a sizable purse to strengthen the squad to make it more competitive.
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