David Alaba was the second-highest-paid player on the entire team, earning €22.5 million a year

Does David Alaba even know when he joined Real Madrid?

They’re giving him a send-off today!

The guy joined Real Madrid in 2022 on a free transfer—as usual, Florentino Pérez loves free defenders— but the surprise is that David Alaba was the second-highest-paid player on the entire team at 22.5 million euros a year, even though at the peak of his career at Bayern Munich he was making only 10 million euros!

The real surprise is that David Alaba played only 132 games for Real Madrid over five years, and that’s because he suffered 17 injuries that caused him to miss 132 games—a total of 780 days—meaning he spent a little over two years in the hospital!

Because he played so little, the fans didn’t remember him for anything other than the chair-lifting celebration they did after the comeback against Paris Saint-Germain. Even he himself, in his farewell today, bid the fans goodbye with that same celebration, and the fans waved him off with the same chair from the stands!

A defender who was making 22.5 million—more than Modrić, Kroos, and Benzema—and whose greatest achievements were reserving a suite at the club’s hospital and lifting a chair during celebrations. What a deal, Pérez!

Today, during the match between Real Madrid and Athletic Bilbao, one of the most emotional moments you could ever see in soccer took place!

Dani Carvajal played his final match with Real Madrid today, and when Arbeloa substituted him in the 82nd minute, he received a grand send-off—truly befitting his illustrious career with Real Madrid!

Carvajal couldn’t hold back his emotions and started crying. The crowd gave him a standing ovation that lasted three straight minutes. Even Florentino Pérez was deeply moved. Players from both teams formed a guard of honor for him. After that, Carvajal went around shaking hands with each player and handed his captain’s armband to Valverde!

The highlight was the tifo the fans created before the match. The tifo featured a photo of Carvajal with the legend Di Stefano, taken when Carvajal was a child, and the fans wrote a royal-style phrase that read, “A child’s dream, a legend’s triumph.”

23 seasons with Real Madrid, the second-most decorated player in Real Madrid history, the player with the most Champions League titles in history—Carvajal is leaving Real Madrid as a true legend in every sense of the word.

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