Raul Asencio’s Struggles at Real Madrid: Legal Troubles and Mourinho's Authority

Raul Asencio’s road back to Real Madrid does not begin on a training pitch. It starts in a courtroom and at a breathalyser checkpoint in southern Gran Canaria.

The 23-year-old defender, once earmarked as part of the club’s next generation, finds himself fighting not for a place in the starting XI, but for credibility inside a dressing room now ruled again by Jose Mourinho.

Mourinho’s return, Asencio’s crisis

When Real Madrid stunned European football in June by handing Mourinho a three-year deal and inviting him back to the Bernabéu, the headline issues looked obvious. Vinicius Junior’s future dominated the early weeks, the Brazilian heavily linked with Arsenal before eventually signing a new contract.

But waiting beneath the surface was a more delicate, more combustible problem. Raul Asencio.

On August 16, at around 6:30am, police stopped Asencio at a breathalyser checkpoint in southern Gran Canaria. He was driving a Porsche Macan GTS. The tests that followed were damning.

Initial and secondary breath tests both showed readings of 0.90 and 0.88 milligrams of alcohol per litre of exhaled air, according to Spanish outlet Atlantico Hoy. Spain’s legal limit is 0.25 mg/l. Asencio had gone more than three times over.

The process moved quickly. He was summoned to a fast-track trial and handed a €14,400 fine — calculated as €120 per day over four months — and hit with an eight‑month driving ban. A public stain, a private reckoning, and a major headache for a club that sells itself as the global standard.

Legal trouble on two fronts

The drink‑driving conviction was not the only issue on Asencio’s legal agenda.

The trial came just a day before he was due back in court over a separate case, relating to the sharing of a sexually explicit video allegedly recorded in 2023 by three former Real Madrid youth academy teammates.

Asencio is accused of showing explicit images of two female complainants to another person on his mobile phone. He has privately apologised to both women and paid them compensation, with the pair said to have forgiven him. The legal process, however, still leaves a mark — on his reputation, on the club’s image, and on Mourinho’s early months in charge.

For a manager known for drawing hard lines in the sand, this is not a side issue. It is a test of authority.

Inside the club: punishment and doubt

Real Madrid have opened disciplinary proceedings against Asencio over the drink‑driving conviction. The club will decide how heavy the internal sanction should be. That could mean a financial penalty, it could mean another form of disciplinary measure before he is allowed to fully rejoin the group.

This is not a simple box-ticking exercise. Trust is the currency in a Mourinho squad, and Asencio has spent plenty of it.

Reports in Spain suggest the club even considered selling him in the summer, only for an injury to shut down any realistic chance of moving him on. He stayed, but not on his own terms. He stayed with questions hanging over him.

Now comes the hard part.

Mourinho, the meeting, and the long way back

According to Defensa Central, Asencio knows exactly how serious his recent mistakes have been. Those close to him describe a player determined to draw a line under the chaos and fight for his career in Madrid, not elsewhere.

He has already sat down with Mourinho in a personal meeting, a crucial conversation for a player on the edge. In that meeting, Asencio is understood to have promised total focus on his football, a commitment to improve, and a determination to leave his recent past behind him.

Promises are one thing. Convincing Mourinho, and a sceptical club hierarchy, is something else entirely.

The internal punishment will arrive first. The road back into the squad will come after that. Then the real question begins: can a 23‑year‑old defender who has already burned through so much goodwill rebuild his name at a club that rarely waits for anyone?