Carvajal's last Bernabéu night: 27 titles, six Champions Leagues and a free transfer out
Real Madrid say goodbye to Dani Carvajal at the Bernabéu tonight, and the right-back leaves as the second-most decorated player in the club's history after 13 seasons in the first team and 27 trophies, including a joint-record six Champions League titles.
The club confirmed the parting on 18 May with a short statement: "Real Madrid and our captain Dani Carvajal have agreed to bring an end to a wonderful chapter as a player of our club at the conclusion of the current season." The 34-year-old will leave on a free transfer when his contract runs out at the end of June, and tonight's home game against Athletic Club, the last LaLiga match of a trophyless 2025-26, doubles as his farewell ceremony in front of a full Santiago Bernabéu.
A 24-year stay that ends on a free
Carvajal joined Real Madrid's youth set-up as a 10-year-old in 2002 and worked his way through Castilla before being sold to Bayer Leverkusen in 2012. Madrid retained a buy-back clause, used it a year later, and the right-back has been a first-team fixture from 2013 onwards. He sits second on the club's all-time trophy list with 27, one behind Luka Modrić and ahead of Nacho Fernández, Marcelo and Karim Benzema, and he became, alongside Modrić, Nacho and Kroos in 2024, one of four players to equal Paco Gento's record of six Champions League titles.
The body finally caught up with him. A cruciate ligament tear in October 2024 cost him most of that season, a second serious knee injury a year later limited his involvement again, and 2025-26 was a stop-start campaign of 22 appearances in all competitions. Trent Alexander-Arnold, who arrived from Liverpool for €10 million in June 2025 on a six-year deal, has been the first-choice right-back for most of the season, and that has been the most visible reason the succession was already in place when the decision finally came.
Why the club did not renew
From the outside, the maths is straightforward. A 34-year-old with two knee reconstructions in two years, on a top-bracket salary, with a younger international already starting in his position is the kind of contract Real Madrid almost never extend. Internally there were signs the player wanted one more year, and Álvaro Arbeloa, the head coach who took over from Xabi Alonso this season and who once played the same right-back slot at the club, said this week he expected the farewell to be a fitting one. The relationship between captain and head coach has been picked apart in the Spanish press for the last fortnight, but the contract call sits with the board.
This is also one piece of a wider shake-up. Reports out of Spain this week put as many as ten players on a potential exit list, and 2025-26 is the second straight trophyless campaign for the club, the first back-to-back trophyless run since 2008-09 and 2009-10. Carvajal is the senior departure that gives that clean-up its emotional anchor.
Where Carvajal goes next
The right-back has not named a destination. Reported interest has come from Saudi Pro League sides, who can offer the wages a free-agent veteran tends to attract, and from clubs in Italy, with Inter Milan and Juventus the names most frequently floated in the Spanish papers. A Major League Soccer move has also been mentioned, on the same Casemiro-to-Inter-Miami template, although the player himself has spoken about wanting to play at the top end of European football for another year or two.
Whatever he chooses, the squad he leaves is one he helped build. Carvajal walked into the first team in 2013 at the end of the José Mourinho era, lifted three Champions Leagues under Carlo Ancelotti and three more under Zinedine Zidane, and is closing his Real Madrid career in the same week the club is reportedly finalising Mourinho's return for the 2026-27 season. The right-back who spent all but one senior season away from Real Madrid leaves as the Bernabéu prepares to open a different one.
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