Claudio Echeverri will spend a year on loan at River Plate after sealing his move to Manchester City, the Argentine has confirmed.
City are expected to seal the signing of the 18-year-old this month from the same club that signed Julián Álvarez two years ago. As part of the deal, City paid £14 million for Alvarez in January 2022 and allowed him to spend six months on loan at River Plate until the start of City’s 2022/23 pre-season.
The deal for Echeverri, who is younger than Alvarez was when he signed for City, will take a similar format, with River Plate confirming this week that the midfielder will remain with them for a year – until January 2025.
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Speaking to SportCenter (via ESPN Deportes), director Enzo Francescoli indicated that the move would go through and that Echeverri would remain at River for 12 months as part of the deal.
Francescoli said: “He is very calm, I see him the same as last year. Obviously he must have his internal things. But he deserves it, he is a great boy. He is very well, with his feet on the ground beyond what happens to him at 18 years old, which is a lot. I spoke to him a couple of days ago. He is very well, calm.”
Responding to River supporters’ frustrations that the club had extended Echeverri’s contract, the coach responded to the complaint but admitted that his club was necessarily powerless to keep the midfielder due to the economic realities of South American football.
“I understand. People get impatient and don’t know how things happen. There is no longer an ideal world as always imagined,” he said. “You have to live with globalization, on a day-to-day basis. The same thing happens in football. Nobody should be surprised. It is very difficult to sustain long-term projects.
“The inevitable ones are those, players like Claudio who surprise, who excite many people. Distant markets and others closer like the Brazilian, who has more economic strength than us and has a less difficult path in the economic field. River has that condition to at least play it for a year.
“A sale without a clause as is the great desire, a very similar box and he stays with us for a year. Things were done right, with the will of the boy, his agent and City, who may have only waited six months. “”There are a lot of things to consider. Today, so does the market and the scenario in Argentina. “
“Selling is very smart economically. We know the situations he has, but he’s only 18 years old. You can’t put a clause of 100 million euros on players like in Europe, which has high salaries. It’s not that simple. “