Belgian forced to hand in transfer request to seal Old Trafford switch.
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Midfield player Marouane Fellaini sacrificed a £4m loyalty bonus in order to force through his last-minute £27.5m move from Everton to Manchester United in the final hours on transfer deadline day, according to reports in the Daily Mail.
The tall Belgium international eventually put pen to paper on a five-year deal with the Premier League champions, however, the 25-year-old was forced to hand in a transfer request at Goodison Park to seal his dream move to the Red Devils, without which it is understood that Fellaini would still be an Everton player now.
Fellaini handed in his transfer request at just before 8pm on Monday and that meant that United only had to pay £23.5m for the attacking midfield player, which was the exact value of the player’s much-publicised release clause in his contract with the Toffees that had expired on July 31, and which United head coach David Moyes was not prepared to go over to sign the player.
It was the Scot, of course, who first brought Fellaini to the Premier League while in charge of the Merseyside giants, with the Belgian having been signed from Standard Liege in the summer of 2008 for a club-record fee of £15m, with the playmaker going on to net 33 goals in 177 matches for the club.