Jesús Vallejo · Biography

On 23 August 2014, aged seventeen, Jesús Vallejo Lázaro made his professional debut for Real Zaragoza at the Nuevo Colombino. He started and played the full ninety minutes of a 0-0 draw with Recreativo de Huelva in the Spanish second division. Born in Zaragoza on 5 January 1997, the centre-back went on to play for Real Madrid, Eintracht Frankfurt, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Granada. He has played for Albacete Balompié since 2025. With Spain’s youth sides he won the European Under-19 Championship and the European Under-21 Championship, and he also won an Olympic silver medal.

Youth career and debut at Real Zaragoza

Vallejo joined Real Zaragoza’s academy in 2008 and worked his way up to the first team in the summer of 2014. That debut in Huelva, partnering Uruguayan Leandro Cabrera at the heart of the defence, was the first of a season in which he became a regular starter in the second division. That autumn Zaragoza’s fans voted him the team’s best player in the matches against Recreativo and Sabadell, and he was also called up to the Spain Under-19 squad. His first professional goal came on 5 April 2015 against Tenerife.

Move to Real Madrid and a loan in Germany

On 31 July 2015 Real Madrid announced his signing and loaned him straight back to Real Zaragoza for another year. He made 20 league appearances for the Aragonese club in 2015-16. On 12 July 2016 he joined Eintracht Frankfurt on loan, where Niko Kovač was in charge. He made his Bundesliga debut on the opening day, 27 August 2016, coming on late in a 1-0 win over Schalke 04. He became a first-team regular in Germany and finished the campaign with 25 league games and one goal, although a thigh injury in April 2017 kept him out of the closing weeks.

First years in Real Madrid’s first team

In the summer of 2017 he returned to Real Madrid and stayed in the senior squad. His competitive debut for the club came on 26 October 2017 in the first leg of a Copa del Rey round-of-32 tie, a 2-0 win away at Fuenlabrada; he was shown a straight red card in the 89th minute. Ten days later he played his first La Liga match, a 3-0 home win over UD Las Palmas at the Santiago Bernabéu. On 11 April 2018 he made his Champions League debut in the second leg of the quarter-final against Juventus, who won 3-1 in Madrid. That season the club won the 2018 Champions League and the 2017 Club World Cup, and in December 2018 it won the Club World Cup again.

Loans to Wolverhampton and Granada

In July 2019 he joined Wolverhampton Wanderers on loan. His Premier League debut came on 14 September 2019 in a 5-2 home defeat to Chelsea. He played only two league games in England, and on 24 January 2020 Real Madrid cut the loan short and sent him to Granada until the end of the season. On 18 August 2020 the two clubs extended the deal by another year. In 2020-21 Granada played in the Europa League and reached the quarter-finals, where Manchester United knocked them out in April 2021. Vallejo started the first leg. On 15 July 2023 he returned to Granada, again on loan, for the 2023-24 season in La Liga.

Trophies with Real Madrid

Between his two spells at Granada he was part of the Real Madrid squad that won La Liga in 2021-22, the Spanish Super Cup that same season and the 2022 Champions League. The 2022 UEFA Super Cup, the 2022 Club World Cup and the 2023 Copa del Rey followed. After his second stint at Granada he returned to Madrid for 2024-25, when the club won the 2024 UEFA Super Cup and the 2024 Intercontinental Cup. On 30 May 2025 Real Madrid announced that he would leave when his contract ended, ten years after he signed.

Spain national team

Vallejo played for Spain at Under-16, Under-17, Under-19, Under-21 and Under-23 level. In 2015 he won the European Under-19 Championship in Greece, playing five games at the finals. With the Under-21s he was a European runner-up in Poland in 2017. Two years later he won the Under-21 Euro in Italy and San Marino. He captained the side in the final in Udine on 30 June 2019, which Spain won 2-1 against Germany, and UEFA named him in the team of the tournament. Julen Lopetegui called him up to the senior squad for a friendly against Switzerland on 3 June 2018. At the Tokyo Olympics, held in 2021, Luis de la Fuente included him in his 22-man squad. In the opening game against Egypt he came off the bench and took the armband from Dani Ceballos. In the final against Brazil, which Spain lost 2-1 after extra time, he played at right-back. He came home with a silver medal.

Albacete

On 14 July 2025 he joined Albacete Balompié on a free transfer, signing a two-year deal. The move took him back to the Spanish second division eleven years after his debut with Zaragoza. His first competitive game was on 18 August 2025, a 4-4 draw away at UD Almería. On 17 December 2025, in a Copa del Rey round-of-32 tie against Celta Vigo at the Carlos Belmonte, he headed a stoppage-time equaliser to make it 2-2. He also scored his spot kick in the shootout, which Albacete won 3-0 to knock out the top-flight side.