Atlético de Madrid and Real Madrid have agreed the transfer of Marcos Llorente to the Rojiblancos for €40M and the stopper signs a five-year deal. Llorente will be Rodri’s replacement in the midfield for Diego Simeone, because the former Villarreal player will play at Manchester City. Los Blancos needed to sell some footballers and Llorente was the first one to find a new home.
However, this transfer might be seen as risky for many Real Madrid fans. Llorente was grown at Real Madrid and he comes from a family of Madridistas. He always wanted to succeed at Santiago Bernabéu and came back from a loan at Alavés to fight for a place in the starting eleven. With Zidane didn’t have many chances but he shone with Solari. At his 24 years old, he’s a great potential midfielder for a rival like Atlético de Madrid.
Los Blancos needed cash after the recent signings and Marcos Llorente was the first piece to get some income. The numbers of the operation -€40M- are good for Los Blancos, but they are giving away a good and young footballer to one of his rivals. Simeone put a lot of pressure to get the Spaniard, who had also some offers from foreign teams.
Nevertheless, Llorente wanted to stay in the Spanish capital. He was born in Madrid, has business in the city and his girlfriend and friends also live in the centre of Spain, so he didn’t want to go to Italy, even if Roma or Inter were his other destinations. We expected that Real Madrid tried harder to convince him to sign for other club, but Los Blancos finally agreed to sell the player.
Llorente will play together with Álvaro Morata, both raised in La Fábrica at Real Madrid. Los Blancos keep their promise not to touch any Atlético player –Antoine Griezmann could be a great option-, but they agreed to sell a promising player to the city rivals.
