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Today — 9 May 2026Main stream

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

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

Does a viral video show Real Madrid soccer star Federico Valverde being released from the hospital after his altercation with his teammate Aurélien Tchouaméni? No, that's not true: An online AI detector suggested that the viral video was generated by AI, with an unlikely detail in the video pointing to it being fake. There are no legitimate news reports of a video showing Valverde leaving the hospital and a person with him attacking the camera person.

The claim appeared in a video posted to TikTok account @wild.stor1ies on May 7, 2026 (archived here and here). It opened with a caption in Spanish. According to Google Translate, the caption in English read:

Breaking News 🚨🚨 Exclusive footage of Valverde being transported to the hospital

This is what the post looked like on TikTok at the time of writing:

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

The @wild.stor1es account that posted the video has only posted four videos at the time of the publication of this story on May 8, 2026. All four appear to be fake videos of Valverde and Tchouaméni. The viral video in this fact check appears to be AI generated. The online detection tool AI Video Detector found the video had a high probability of AI manipulation, with a risk score of 76/100 that it was AI generated, as this screenshot shows:

Screenshot 2026-05-08 133039.png
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:

Screenshot 2026-05-08 134436.png
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:

Screenshot 2026-05-08 135148.png
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:

Screenshot 2026-05-08 133356.png
Image source: Getty Images.
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