Asencio cleared, three ex-Madrid players sentenced

The verdict, reported by The Athletic on 3 September 2026, clears the Real Madrid defender of all charges connected to the case. Three former Madrid academy players named alongside him, Ferran Ruiz, Juan Rodriguez and Andres Garcia, each received suspended one-year prison sentences in the same trial.

The brief reporting available does not detail the specific charges each man faced, the evidence put before the court, or the reasoning behind the split outcome between Asencio's acquittal and his co-defendants' sentences. What is confirmed is the result itself: one player cleared, three others sentenced but avoiding actual custody.

What it means for Asencio at Madrid

A case like this hangs over a player regardless of the eventual verdict, and a full acquittal removes the legal cloud that had been sitting over Asencio's name. For a club with Real Madrid's profile, a clean verdict for a first-team defender matters, both for his standing in the dressing room and for how the club can talk about him publicly going forward.

The contrast with his three former teammates is stark. Suspended sentences mean Ruiz, Rodriguez and Garcia avoid prison, but they leave the trial with convictions attached to their names, a very different outcome to Asencio's.

The details still unclear

This is a serious matter involving allegations of child exploitation, and the available reporting is limited to the verdict itself. The court's full reasoning, the specifics of what each man was accused of, and any further legal detail have not been laid out in what's been published so far.