Daniel Ceballos Fernández was born on 7 August 1996 in Utrera, Spain. He came through Real Betis's youth system and made 98 first-team appearances before Real Madrid signed him in 2017 for around €18 million. After two seasons of competition for minutes he spent 2019–2021 on loan at Arsenal, where he played 49 matches and won the 2019–20 FA Cup, before returning to Madrid as a rotation midfielder.
Ceballos's Real Madrid honours include two La Liga titles (2021–22, 2023–24), three UEFA Champions League winner's medals (2017–18, 2021–22, 2023–24), and the usual Supercopas, UEFA Super Cups, and FIFA Club World Cups of the era. He has been a key fixture for Spain at youth level — winning the 2017 UEFA European Under-21 Championship as the tournament's player of the tournament and again the 2019 edition — and he won an Olympic silver medal at the rescheduled Tokyo 2020 Games. He has earned 13 caps and one goal at senior level since debuting in September 2018.
The 2025–26 season has been a difficult one. Ceballos has played sparingly under Xabi Alonso, with a summer loan-with-obligation move to Olympique Marseille seemingly close before the player pulled the plug — preferring, by reports, only a return to Real Betis if he were to leave. A 1.79 m central midfielder, he is a press-resistant ball circulator with sharp short passing, body feints to escape pressure, and a sense of when to release a final ball; the question through 2026 is where he gets the regular minutes he wants ahead of the World Cup.