Real Madrid have formally opened disciplinary proceedings against center-back Raúl Asencio after his conviction last month for drink-driving, head coach José Mourinho confirmed to reporters on Thursday, deepening a difficult stretch for the 23-year-old defender both on and off the pitch.
According to Spanish news agency EFE, Asencio was stopped at a traffic checkpoint in southern Gran Canaria at around 6:30 a.m. local time on August 16 while driving a Porsche Macan GTS.
He registered 0.90 milligrams of alcohol per liter of breath on an initial test, followed by a reading of 0.88 mg/l on a second test, nearly four times Spain’s legal limit. Three days later, he admitted the offense at an expedited trial in San Bartolomé de Tirajana and accepted the sentence prosecutors proposed.
The court fined him €120 per day for four months, totaling €14,400 (roughly $16,800), and suspended his driver’s license for eight months.
Real Madrid moved quickly once the case became public. Journalist Melchor Ruiz reported that the club has launched an internal file in line with its disciplinary code, with the offense viewed as damaging to the institution’s image; the club had reportedly already been informed of the incident directly by the player.
Mourinho addressed the matter candidly at his press conference, stressing that a Real Madrid player represents the club at all times, on and off the field, and that accumulating mistakes, even minor ones, is not something he can brush aside, even while praising Asencio’s work ethic in training during his recovery from injury.
The DUI case is not the defender’s only legal entanglement. Asencio is also due to stand trial separately over the alleged unauthorized sharing of sexually explicit videos involving two women, one of whom was a minor at the time; prosecutors allege he shared material recorded by others without consent, though evidence has not indicated he participated in the recording itself.
The defender is set to appear before the Gran Canaria court this week alongside three former Real Madrid academy teammates, despite both alleged victims having withdrawn their complaints against him personally while maintaining their complaints against the other defendants.
A summary of the prosecution’s case, shared with The Athletic, states that two former Real Madrid youth players had consensual sexual contact with a minor and another young woman and recorded images without their consent.
Asencio has consistently denied any wrongdoing, insisting he never violated either woman’s rights and that any involvement was limited to briefly viewing footage recorded by others.
On the pitch, Asencio’s season has yet to begin. He has been sidelined since suffering a right thigh muscle injury on July 30, with club sources indicating a possible return to full training around mid-September.
Once regarded as a breakout academy product who made 80 appearances for the first team over the past two seasons, his standing at the Bernabéu has slipped amid the mounting legal troubles and increased competition in central defense.
The disciplinary process is expected to run alongside the ongoing criminal proceedings, with the exact scale of any club sanction, financial or otherwise, still to be determined.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW
Real Madrid has opened internal disciplinary proceedings against Raúl Asencio after his conviction for drink-driving; he was caught nearly four times over the legal alcohol limit, fined €14,400, and banned from driving for eight months.
The bigger story, though, is the parallel and far more serious case: Asencio is on trial this week for allegedly sharing a sexually explicit video involving a minor without her consent, a charge that carries potential prison time and has cast a shadow over his career regardless of the outcome of the DUI matter.
Real Madrid is treating the drink-driving conviction as a breach of professional conduct, but it’s the unresolved sexual-content case, not the traffic offense, that poses the greatest risk to Asencio’s future.
