Manchester City are reportedly now on the verge of completing a deal for highly rated Argentine youngster Claudio Echeverri.
City have seemingly been quite busy over the past few days regarding this deal.
It had been suggested that the club were prepared to make a bid of around £22 million for the River Plate starlet, and then renowned journalist Fabrizio Romano reported that City were closing in on him.
Now, there has been a fresh update from a journalist with good knowledge of the situation…
Manchester City to sign Claudio Echeverri and immediately loan him back to River Plate
City are now really close to landing Echeverri, according to journalist Gaston Edul.
Edul works for TyC Sports, one of the biggest publications in Argentina, and has a hefty following on X of 820,000 accounts.
He reported on City’s pursuit of Echeverri last night, writing on X: “Claudio Echeverri is about to be sold to @ManCity. 25 million dollars. He is going to stay a while longer in River. Between 6 months and a year. It is difficult to reach an agreement for two more years.”
That converts to a deal worth around £19 million. It is not yet clear if this would be paid in full or if it would be split up and paid in installments.
It is a move that mirrors what City did with Julian Alvarez, who has obviously now become quite a prominent figure at the Etihad Stadium.
City bought Alvarez from the same club, River Plate, and left the player there so he could develop further before he joined up with the City squad in the summer of 2022.
An exciting move
So this move appears to be very close to completion now, and we may have official word in the coming days.
City struck gold with the signing of Alvarez, and Echeverri appears to be another top talent from River Plate that City officials really believe in.
The decision to leave him in place at the South American giants makes a lot of sense. At the end of the day, Echeverri is still only 17 years old, and it is always a big thing for young players coming to big Premier League clubs from different continents.
It makes total sense to allow Echeverri to remain where he is, so he can get more first-team experience since he only just broke though.
It’s a tried and tested method – City left Alvarez at River after signing him, and that worked out for the best. Officials will hope to replicate that success with Echevveri.
