Raul Asencio's Struggles at Real Madrid: Legal Troubles and Redemption
Raul Asencio’s fight to save his Real Madrid career is already under way, and it starts from a very dark place.
When Jose Mourinho walked back through the doors at Valdebebas in June, the headlines circled around his return, his three-year deal, and the future of Vinicius Junior amid heavy links to Arsenal. Madrid’s new era was supposed to be about tactics, titles and transfers.
Instead, one of the first fires on his desk was a scandal involving a 23-year-old defender who should have been talking about pre-season minutes, not court dates.
A Porsche at dawn, and a career on the line
At around 6:30am on August 16 in southern Gran Canaria, Raul Asencio was stopped at a breathalyser checkpoint while driving a Porsche Macan GTS. The test left little room for argument.
Spanish outlet Atlantico Hoy reported that the initial and secondary breath tests registered 0.90 and 0.88 milligrams of alcohol per litre of exhaled air. Spain’s legal limit is 0.25 mg/l. He was more than three times over.
The response from the authorities was swift. Asencio was summoned to a fast-track trial and handed a €14,400 (£12,480) fine, calculated at €120 per day over four months. He also received an eight-month driving ban.
For most players, that alone would be a serious stain. For Asencio, it arrived on the eve of another legal proceeding that had already cast a long shadow over his name.
A second case, and a damaged reputation
Just one day after the drink-driving trial, Asencio was due in court again over a separate case relating to a sexually explicit video allegedly recorded in 2023 by three former Real Madrid youth academy teammates.
He is accused of having shown explicit images of two female complainants to another person on his mobile phone. According to reports, he has privately apologised to both women and paid them compensation, with the pair said to have forgiven him.
The legal process has not erased the damage done to his reputation. For a player trying to establish himself at one of the most scrutinised clubs on the planet, the margin for error has vanished.
Madrid’s response: discipline before redemption
Inside Real Madrid, the drink-driving conviction has triggered formal action. The club has opened disciplinary proceedings against Asencio, and he is expected to face internal punishment before he can be fully reintegrated into the squad.
That could mean a financial sanction or another form of disciplinary measure, depending on how the hierarchy weigh the seriousness of the offence. Whatever they decide, the message is clear: his future in white will not be handed back to him.
Reports in Spain suggest that the club even considered selling him in the summer, only for an injury to halt any potential move. The patience in the boardroom and in the dressing room has been stretched thin.
Mourinho’s verdict, Asencio’s promise
According to Defensa Central, Asencio understands the scale of his mistakes and the risk he has taken with his career. He knows this is close to a last chance.
He has already sat down with Mourinho for a personal meeting. In it, he is said to have promised total focus on his football, a commitment to improve, and a determination to leave his recent past behind him.
For Mourinho, who has built a career managing big egos and complicated characters, this is a familiar test. For Asencio, it is far more than that. It is the line between being remembered as another wasted talent or as a player who dragged himself back from the brink.
Real Madrid will decide his punishment. The real sentence, though, will be delivered over the coming months, every time his name appears – or doesn’t – on a team sheet.
