Manchester United agreed on € 20 million transfer with Atletico de Madrid for the 20 year old Spaniard that will come to replace Dutch Edwin van der Sar.
In need of a replacement for their veteran goalkeeper, Dutch Edwin van der Sar, Manchester United placed their eyes on Atletico de Madrid 20 year old goalie David de Gea, the Spanish rising talent who is called to be one of the best goalies of the future.
Since last year Red Devils coach Sir Alex Fergusson had publically expressed his interest in de Gea, which made Atletico de Madrid rush to offer him a contract extension in October, but the young goalie said that he wasn’t going to pronounce about it until the end of the European U-21 tournament. De Gea wanted to take some time to discuss it his future with his family, which was the first sign about his imminent exit.
It was going to be very hard for de Gea to decline an offer from Manchester United, one of the top clubs in Europe with much more prestige and a better present than Atletico de Madrid. And this was exactly what happened: the Red Devils offered him a five-year deal and the goalie seduced by it agreed on it.
Despite his gratefulness towards the club, he felt that this move was a step forward in his career. Proud of having been part this team, with which he won one UEFA Europa League and one UEFA Super Cup in 2010, he didn’t want to say goodbye to fans that saw him grow in Atletico de Madrid’s minor league until he became the first team starting goalkeeper. Instead he expressed his wishes of reuniting again in the future with them, in a club that “will be big forever,” he said.
One of the biggest challenges that any goalkeeper could face waits for him in England: replace the legendary Van der Sar, who arrived to Manchester in July of 2005 and clinched nine titles with them: four Premier League championships, three Community Shield trophies, one Carling Cup and a Football League Cup.
And as if that wasn’t enough pressure for de Gea, he will also have to carry the weight of being the most expensive goalkeeper in the English Premier League.
This is the first of two exists that Atletico was expecting for the summer from their young talents. The other one is Sergio Kun Aguero’s, who has already expressed his intentions of being transferred this summer.
The 23-year old Argentine striker feels his cycle at Atletico is over and wants to be transferred to a club where he can have real options of fighting for a domestic championship and a UEFA Champions League title. Until now only Juventus has made an official offer for him, we’ll see how it ends.
His case will be more complicated than de Gea’s because Aguero’s tag price is set in € 45 million, 20 more than goalkeeper’s. And added to this the striker has manifested his will of staying in Spain, which makes of archrival Real Madrid his only destination.
When it comes to sports, Andrew Hill is more than just a passionate fan. Despite being in the early years of his career as a journalist, which began in 2006, he has proven that he can translate that passion into truthful and objective information of interest for the sports betting industry. As of today he specializes in the coverage of European soccer and NBA basketball for BetIAS’ website.