Raul Asencio's Fight to Save His Real Madrid Career
Raul Asencio’s fight to save his Real Madrid career is only just beginning.
The 23-year-old defender, once tipped as a long-term pillar at the back, now finds himself trying to rebuild trust at a club where mistakes are rarely forgiven and never forgotten. His determination is clear. The damage he has done is, too.
Mourinho walks into a storm
When Real Madrid stunned European football in June by bringing Jose Mourinho back on a three-year deal, the headlines focused on tactics, trophies and the prospect of another combustible Bernabeu era.
Mourinho, though, walked straight into a very different kind of crisis.
There was the drawn-out saga around Vinicius Junior, heavily linked with Arsenal before eventually committing his future to Madrid with a new contract this summer. That alone would have been enough noise for a new coach to handle.
But the most serious issue waiting on his desk involved Asencio.
Drink-driving case and heavy sanction
In the early hours of August 16, Asencio was stopped at a breathalyser checkpoint in southern Gran Canaria while driving a Porsche Macan GTS at around 6:30am. Spanish outlet Atlantico Hoy reported that both his initial and secondary breath tests came back well over the legal limit.
The figures were stark: 0.90 and 0.88 milligrams of alcohol per litre of exhaled air, more than three times Spain’s legal threshold of 0.25 mg/l.
The response from the authorities was swift. Asencio was summoned to a fast-track trial and handed a €14,400 (£12,480) fine, calculated as €120 per day over four months. He also received an eight-month driving ban.
For a young footballer at one of the world’s biggest clubs, the legal punishment was clear and public. The reputational cost was even higher.
Another case in court
The timing could hardly have been worse. The drink-driving trial came just one day before Asencio was due to appear in court for a separate legal proceeding.
That case relates to a sexually explicit video allegedly recorded in 2023 by three of his former Real Madrid youth academy teammates. Asencio is accused of having shown explicit images of two female complainants to another person on his mobile phone.
He has privately apologised to both women and paid them compensation, with reports stating that the complainants have forgiven him. The legal process, though, has placed him under an unforgiving spotlight and deepened concerns within the club about his judgment off the pitch.
Madrid weigh their response
Inside Real Madrid, the reaction has been serious. According to Defensa Central, the club have opened disciplinary proceedings against Asencio over the drink-driving conviction.
The range of possible sanctions is wide. The defender could be hit with a financial penalty or face another internal measure before he is fully reintegrated into Mourinho’s squad. The exact punishment will depend on how the hierarchy evaluate the seriousness of his conduct and the message they want to send.
What is clear is that Asencio knows he is on thin ice. Reports suggest he is acutely aware of the scale of his mistakes in recent years and is desperate to draw a line under them, focusing instead on his football and on proving he belongs at this level.
That road will not be smooth. Madrid are said to have even considered selling him in the summer, only for an injury to halt any potential move. The idea that he is playing for his future is not an exaggeration; it is the reality of life at a club that moves on quickly from those it cannot fully trust.
A promise to Mourinho
Against that backdrop, Asencio has reportedly requested and held a personal meeting with Mourinho. In it, he is said to have promised total commitment: to concentrate fully on his career, to improve on the pitch, and to bury the chaos of his recent past.
Mourinho has built a career on managing volatile dressing rooms and complex personalities. Now he must decide how far he is willing to go to back a young defender whose talent is not in question, but whose discipline has dragged him to the edge.
Real Madrid will punish Raul Asencio. The real question is whether they will also give him the time and trust to prove that this is the turning point, not the beginning of the end.
