A La Liga match took a violent turn postgame Saturday when Real Madrid’s Federico Valverde punched Villarreal’s Alex Baena near Villarreal’s team bus over a comment Baena allegedly said in January that Valverde’s child wouldn’t be born, according to multiple reports.
The Athletic reported that Baena was later spotted with a “bruised and spotted cheekbone,” and ESPN added that Valverde had waited near the Villarreal team bus in the Santiago Bernabeu Stadium parking lot before throwing his punch.
The initial incident allegedly occurred when Real Madrid and Villarreal faced each other in the Copa del Rey in January, with Baena allegedly telling the 24-year-old Valverde “cry, because your child won’t be born,” ESPN reported.
Baena, a 21-year-old, denied making the comment in a social media post, where he wrote, in Spanish, that he was happy with the team’s victory but “at the same time very sad for the aggression I suffered after the match and surprised by what is being said about me. It is totally untrue that I said that,” according to The Athletic.
Read Related Also: Greg Sargent: The media is killing the Democratic party on immigration
A Villarreal team delegate called Valverde, who plays for the Uruguay national team, “loutish and cowardly” in a since-deleted tweet, according to multiple reports.
At the time of the January comment, Valverde and his partner, Mina Bonino, were dealing with a pregnancy complication — as the couple wrote in a February social media post — and feared that they had lost their child before later finding out that it was healthy, according to ESPN.
Baena could press criminal charges, The Athletic reported, and the police have been informed about the incident, though it’s unclear what Baena’s plans — or timeline — would be for that approach.
Real Madrid won the January meeting between the pair of teams, but Villarreal defeated them on Saturday by scoring two goals in the final 20 minutes of a 3-2 victory.
