River and Manchester City close the sale of Diablito Echeverri: only the signature is missing

The sale of Diablito Echeverri from River al Manchester City is practically closed. The amount, between fixed and variable sums, would exceed 25 million euros, that is, the figure of the termination clause and the player will remain on loan in Núñez until December 2024, so, as announced Clarionwill be able to play in full next year’s Copa Libertadores.

Echeverri will continue on loan to River for 365 days. And in January 2025 he will go to Manchester City. Therefore, he will be able to play in Libertadores 2024 and if the Millonario team is champion, he will be in the Intercontinental, which will be played in December of next year. These data were also reflected in the English newspaper The Guardianwhich in its edition this Wednesday made reference to the youth transaction.

This way, Diablitogate came to an end after almost a week of madness after his explosive statements. “I’m not going to renew,” Echeverri had said at the Madre de Ciudades in Santiago del Estero after Martín Demichelis’ team won the Champions Trophy after beating Rosario Central 2 to 0. It was a bombshell in the River World.

His relationship with the Millionaire ended in December 2024. And although there will be no renewal, it was feared at one point that the footballer, “instigated by his representative”, would leave without leaving a cent in the club. But they quickly denied it. “It was never in the plans to go free“Enzo Montepaone, Echeverri’s agent, assured this newspaper.

River intended to sign the renewal and raise the termination clause to 50 million of euros, something that he could not achieve in recent times and much less after the footballer broke it in the U-17 World Cup in Indonesia with the Argentine National Team of his category, led by Diego Placente. He scored three goals against Brazil before the eyes of talent scouts from around the world.

City had already been following him. And he contacted not only River, but also Echeverri’s family. He has the fresh euros and financial solvency to make the transfer. They will give the player a contract for 6 years. He will complete his training in Núñez and from the beginning of 2025 he will be under the orders of Pep Guardiola. AND He will be a partner of Julián ÁlvarezOf course.

In this way, the turbulence that had been generated by the statements of the 17-year-old youth (on January 2 he will turn 18) was stopped, and by staying for another year it gives peace of mind to Martín Demichelis, who counts on Echeverri as a key piece of facing an important year, in which River will once again point all its guns at the Copa Libertadores. And the Little Devil can give him the freshness that his team needs. He showed it on Friday in the final of the Champions Trophy, in which he played as a starter, in the hook position and had a tremendous half hour.

“In all of 2024 it will be here”, a senior River leader had told Clarín on Tuesday. And this Wednesday it closes, said a senior club leader.

This situation will also bring peace of mind to Echeverri himself, a symbol of the renewal that will come in River. After the explosion caused by his words, and the anguish it caused him, El Diablito spent Christmas in Chaco with his family and appeared more smiling in a photo that he published on his social networks.

With the chance to stay during 2024, El Diablito will be able to recompose through his actions on the playing field the discomfort that his statements generated among the fans.which were the product of innocence, since when he realized what he had said, the youth did not stop crying and showing regret.

Of the total sale, which, as said, will exceed 25 million euros, River will have 85 percent left, since that is the percentage of the token that belongs to it while The remaining 15% corresponds to Deportivo Luján of Resistencia, the club where Diablito started.

That is a modality that City applied in recent times, with very young players. For example, with the Brazilian Gabriel Jesús, who, in 2016, at the age of 19, was hired by the Manchester club and they left him on loan at Palmeiras for 6 months.

The same thing happened with Julián Álvarez, who was bought by City at the beginning of 2022 and six months later he traveled to England to join the team led by Pep Guardiola and start a path of glory, in which In a year and a half he won the Premier League, the FA Cup, the Champions League and the Club World Cup and he was also world champion with the Argentine National Team.

With a good pre-existing relationship between both River and the City Group, after the transfer of Álvarez, the parties had entered a final phase of negotiation that led to a formal offer and an agreement that was sealed this Wednesday. Echeverri stays with the red sash for one more year and then goes to Manchester City, the last champion of the Champions League and the Club World Cup. The best team in the world, currently.