United and Real yet to agree fee for Argentine winger.
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Manchester United may have to pay as much as £66m to Real Madrid for the signing of Angel Di Maria, with the Spanish giants under growing pressure to bring in a sizeable fee from his sale.
The Argentine, linked with United and Paris Saint-Germain for much of this summer’s transfer window so far, is a hugely popular player at the Bernabeu and stood out as one of the team’s best performers last season with 11 goals and 26 assists in all competitions to help the club to glory in both the Champions League and the Copa del Rey.
Despite the exciting arrival of Colombian World Cup star James Rodriguez from AS Monaco as his replacement, Di Maria’s likely exit has not gone down well with the Real Madrid fans, meaning the club are keen to show as much as possible that they are not letting him leave too easily.
Real did the same during negotiations with Arsenal over the sale of Mesut Ozil last summer, with the German playmaker eventually leaving for a big fee of around £42.5m despite falling down in the pecking order at the Bernabeu after the arrivals of Gareth Bale and Isco in his position.
Recent reports have suggested that Di Maria could move for around £56m, but it now looks increasingly likely that Real will push for more money from United until as late as possible in the transfer window as they look to appease their fans.
Club president Fiorentino Perez has a reputation for being a strong businessman and has always shown he is willing to pay astronomical fees to ensure Madrid land some of the biggest names in world football, with their ‘Galactico’ culture starting under his leadership in the early 00s with the signings of big names such as Luis Figo, Zindedine Zidane and David Beckham.
Perez is also keen to drive a hard bargain on the club’s own players, however, and this could put a potential spanner in the works as United look to tie up a deal for Di Maria in the next few days.
A £66m transfer fee would make him the most expensive signing of all time made by a British club, beating the £50m Chelsea paid for Fernando Torres by quite some distance.
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Angel Di Maria Manchester United