No official confirmation from Manchester United yet but the player has already spoken out.
Angel di Maria has passed his medical at PSG. Life is looking up.
The Argentine told beIN Sports, ‘I am very happy to join PSG. What I know about PSG is that it is a team that won all the possible trophies in France last season.
‘This is very important for the club. I also know that I want to overcome the obstacle that is the quarter finals of the Champions League. I am going to try to bring the best of my abilities to put myself at the service of this team.
‘We are going to try and go as far as possible in the Champions League.’
That’s the spirit.
Several interesting details have emerged, though, following di Maria’s €63m [£44.4m] switch to PSG.
First off, United ended up demanding an extra €6m for di Maria after he showed up in Qatar and started posing for pictures, signalling his impending move to France.
Louis van Gaal was furious with the midfielder’s actions and the club, acting at his behest, threatened to pull the plug on the deal. Ultimately, the clubs met halfway and di Maria became a PSG player for €63m [as opposed to the previously agreed €57m fee].
If that appears to be a small victory for United, it is a drop in the ocean on their initial outlay for di Maria.
Spanish radio station Onda Cero report that Real Madrid will receive €8m from the €63m fee due to a sell-on clause from his 2014 move.
Add that to the €75m [£59.7m] United paid to Real, last season*, and di Maria will have cost them €83m in total. €20m lost in the space of one middling season at Old Trafford.
€83m. That works out as €27.7m per goal or, to give the Argentine more credit for his creative abilities, €8.3m per assist.
Don’t tell “Messiah” proclaiming L’Equipe…
*The GBP-EUR exchange rate was £1.00/€1.25 last August [Hat-tip to Gavan Reilly for currency conversion tips].
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