Manchester City's decision that could complicate Real Madrid and Barcelona's plans

For years Manchester City adopted a recruitment policy that meets two different criteria. On the one hand, buying top players who arrive at the club and immediately become key pieces of the team, as they did with Erling Haaland, Ruben Dias and Josko Gvardiol. On the other hand, betting on young players and being patient with them until they are ready to play at the highest level, whether they are from the club's youth teams (like Phil Foden and Rico Lewis) or arrivals from other sides (like Julian Alvarez).

The latter was bought in the summer of 2022, after excelling for years at River Plate in Argentina. And now the Citizens want to repeat that with another young South American star: Claudio Echeverri. The forward, who many compare to Lionel Messi, also came through the ranks at River and in 2023 shone for Argentina U-17 at the World Cup in Indonesia.

Last week Manchester City agreed to buy Echeverri for almost $30 million, but he will only travel to Europe in December 2024. However, it is still unclear what the player's destination will be once he leaves the Argentine club. By that time he will be 19 years old and will have two years of experience as a professional player, although perhaps due to his youth he will need some time to adapt to European soccer.

Therefore, it is possible that he will first have an experience in another less demanding club, where he will have more opportunities to play and grow, before going to Pep Guardiola's team. According to the newspaper Ole, Manchester City are considering loaning Echeverri to Girona of Spain, another of the clubs that belong to the City Football Group.

They are an important team

If this rumor is confirmed, it will undoubtedly be bad news for Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid. The Spanish giants have dominated the La Liga titles for the last decades, but this season Girona surprised everyone with a great performance that allowed them to be leaders of the standings. If Manchester City loan them top players, their chances of competing with the giants will be even greater.