Dani Carvajal will leave Real Madrid at the end of the current season, the club announced, and he will say goodbye to the fans on Saturday in the match against Athletic Club at the Santiago Bernabéu.
It will close a 23-season relationship with the club that began when Carvajal joined the academy as a 10-year-old. Across 13 first-team seasons he made 450 appearances, scored 14 goals and collected 27 trophies for Real Madrid.
The list of honours is unusually long: six Champions Leagues, six Club World Cups, five UEFA Super Cups, four LaLiga titles, two Copa del Rey trophies and four Spanish Super Cups. Carvajal also enjoyed success with Spain — he has 51 caps, won the UEFA Nations League in 2023 and was part of the side that lifted Euro 2024.
Individually, 2024 was a peak year. Carvajal was named in the FIFPRO World 11 and won The Best FIFA Men’s 11 award. He was also named the best player in the Champions League final that year and scored a header in that match.
Carvajal’s route to that position was built from childhood. Born in Leganés on 11 January 1992, he joined Real Madrid’s academy at ten and, in 2004 alongside Alfredo Di Stéfano, placed the first stone of the club’s Sports City in Valdebebas. He left for Bayer Leverkusen in 2012, and Real Madrid activated its buy-back option to bring him back a year later.
He made his first-team debut on 18 August 2013 against Betis and was part of the squad that won Real Madrid’s 10th European Cup in 2014. Over the following decade he became a fixture at right back, a player whose name became synonymous with the club’s recent run of continental success.
The career has not been without setback. On 5 October 2024 Carvajal suffered a serious knee injury after an accidental collision with Yeremy Pino and remained out of action for a year. That absence makes his 2024 individual awards and the Champions League final performance notable markers of resilience.
There is an unavoidable tension between club celebration and national omission. Despite the string of recent honours — and the Champions League final accolade — Carvajal was not included in Luis de la Fuente’s prelist for the 2026 World Cup, a fact that highlights the thin line between form, fitness and selection at the international level.
Off the field, Carvajal’s life has been rooted in Madrid. He lives in Boadilla del Monte with Daphne Cañizares and their two children, is frequently seen at Lobito de Mar in central Madrid and often visits Llanes in Asturias where he owns a second home.
Real Madrid framed the announcement as the farewell of a homegrown legend. The club has asked that supporters reserve Saturday’s match at the Santiago Bernabéu for that send-off. The specific arrangements will make the fixture more than a game for many fans — it will be a final formal goodbye to a player who arrived as a child and left as one of the club’s most decorated figures.
What happens next for Carvajal has not been disclosed; the only confirmed facts are the timing of his departure and Saturday’s farewell. For Real Madrid, Saturday will be the last time their right-back parades the white shirt in front of his home crowd.
When the whistle blows at the Bernabéu, Carvajal will walk off a career that stretched from a 10-year-old academy recruit to a 27-title first-team veteran — the closing chapter of 23 seasons bound to one club.
