Promising Real Madrid youngster Jesus Fortea has signed his first professional contract with the club, The Athletic can exclusively reveal.

Fortea is a 16-year-old right-back, whose arrival last summer marked a significant development: Real Madrid broke a longstanding ‘non-aggression’ pact with city rivals Atletico Madrid when he joined.

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The two Madrid clubs had, for more than 15 years, respected an agreement not to sign each others’ youth players — a pact that had been established verbally between the presidents.

Since Fortea’s move, however, Madrid have continued to target Atletico youth talent, and he was not the only youngster to join from their ranks last summer. Now, an under-12 defender is set to make the switch next season, with further moves planned.

Madrid do not describe their strategy as one designed to weaken Atletico. Their aim matches wider ambitions for their youth academy: they want to bring in high-potential talent at an early age before they have turned 16 and have signed a professional contract, so they can join for free.

Relations between the two clubs are healthy, and presidents Florentino Perez and Enrique Cerezo remain friends, though there has been plenty of tension over other matters, such as Madrid’s support for plans to establish a European Super League.

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The conditions of Fortea’s new three-year deal will remain the same as the terms he agreed last summer when he rejected significant offers from clubs in England and Germany to join Madrid.

His new contract could not be legally completed until he turned 16, on March 26. He marked his birthday with an Instagram post that featured a photo of him as a young child wearing a Real Madrid shirt.

Fortea, who can also feature on the right wing, is part of Madrid’s under-16 Cadete A team but has already impressed at higher age groups. He has played a regular role with the club’s under-18 Juvenil B side — impressing with his assists — and has already made his debut with the Juvenil A under-19 team managed by Alvaro Arbeloa, who was one of the driving forces behind his arrival last summer. “Arbeloa takes great care of him,” a club source, who was granted anonymity to protect their position, told The Athletic.

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The teenager is also a regular youth international, but in March he was excluded from Spain’s under-17 side by coach Julen Guerrero for disciplinary reasons, along with Barcelona’s Lamine Yamal and Daniel Munoz of Atletico.

Real Madrid point out that Fortea has always behaved impeccably with them, and the club are delighted to have signed him to professional terms.

(Top photo: Personal archive)