Fact Check: FAKE Video Of Real Madrid Soccer Star Federico Valverde Being Released From Hospital Is AI-Generated

Image source: AIvideodetector.org.

Real Madrid player Valverde was taken to the hospital on May 7, 2026, after an altercation with his teammate Aurélien Tchouaméni at the team's training facility, as The Guardian reported (archived here). The paper reported there was video of Valverde's car going to and from the training facility but that he was not visible in the car:

Valverde was taken to the medical department at Valdebebas and from there to the nearby Hospital Blua Sanitas Valdebebas, where he was given stitches. Cameras caught the 27-year-old's car going back and forth from the training ground, although the Uruguay midfielder was not visible inside.

News outlet Madrid Universal published a photo on their X.com account @MadridUniversal (archived here) of Valverde's car returning to the training facility on May 7, 2026, as this screenshot shows:

Image source: post by @MadridUniversal on X.

Valverde's hospital visit after his argument with Tchouaméni was covered by major international news outlets. Had there been a video of him being wheeled out of the hospital with a guard attacking the camera person, that would have been widely published. Lead Stories searched Google and Yahoo! for video of Valverde being wheeled out of the hospital and did not find any matching results.

A sign of the video being fake is the uniform shirt the man in the wheelchair appears to be wearing. According to reports, the incident took place at practice at a training facility. However, the man in the video in the wheelchair is wearing what appears to be the long sleeved game jersey for the team, as this screenshot shows:

Image source: post by @wild.stor!es onTikTok.

A photo that is being widely used in stories about Valverde and Tchouameni's incident is from a March 14, 2026, game shows Valverde in a long sleeved jersey. That image is available on the Getty Images website (archived here), as this screenshot shows:

Image source: Getty Images.