The first after Ronaldo – Newspaper Kommersant No. 152 (7353) of 08/20/2022

Premier League club Manchester United have reached an agreement to sign Brazilian midfielder Casemiro from Real Madrid. The player, who has yet to undergo a medical before signing with his new team, will cost Manchester United €60m in guaranteed payments, plus another €10m if he meets a number of milestones. Thus, Casemiru will become the second most valuable player aged 30 or older. At one time, they paid more only for Cristiano Ronaldo himself.

Manchester United have reached an agreement to sign Real Madrid midfielder Casemir, who turns 31 in February. This was confirmed by the head coach of Madrid Carlo Ancelotti. According to the specialist, on Friday he had a conversation with the Brazilian, during which the latter made it clear that he needed new challenges and new opportunities. “I understand this desire, as well as the club management,” said Mr. Ancelotti.

According to the post Daily Mail, the acquisition of Casemir will cost Manchesterians €60 million in guaranteed payments and up to €10 million in bonuses if the player reaches a number of indicators set in the contract. That is, in total, Real Madrid can receive up to € 70 million for its player. As for the Brazilian’s personal contract, it will be concluded for four years with the possibility of prolongation for another one. At the same time, the salary of a player in Manchester will be twice as high as in Madrid. He will receive £350,000 a week (£18.2m a year). That is, he will become the third highest paid player on the team. Only Cristiano Ronaldo (£25m a year) and David de Gea (£19.5m a year) get paid more.

Casemiro’s move will be in the top 5 of the current transfer window. This season, the largest purchase was made by Real Madrid, who completed the transfer of Aurélien Chuameni from Monaco for €80 million. Darwin Nunez (transferred from Benfica) cost Liverpool €5 million less. €67 million cost Bayern the purchase of Matthijs de Ligt from Juventus. Finally, Chelsea gave Brighton €65 million for Marc Cucurella. And Manchester City bought Erling Haaland from Borussia Dortmund for €60 million.

However, they are all noticeably younger than Casemir, who has already exchanged his fourth decade. And if we take into account the transfers of players aged 30 or older, it turns out that in this category the Brazilian can become the second most valuable in history. In 2020, the same €60m (we remind you that bonus payments for Casemira are another €10m on top of his base price) were paid by Barcelona to Juventus for Miralem Pjanic. Well, the record belongs to the same Cristiano Ronaldo. His move to Juventus from Real Madrid in 2018 (the Portuguese was 33 at the time) cost €117m.

Note that the acquisition of players aged 30 and over is not in the tradition of Manchester United.

At the moment, in addition to the already mentioned David de Gea and Cristiano Ronaldo, there are only three players in the 30+ category in the expanded squad. But the current situation is forcing the Manchester team to rely not so much on promising as on proven personnel. Team unsuccessfully started in the English Championship, having suffered two defeats in a row, and Manchester United head coach Eric ten Hag became the first Manchester United coach since 1921 to lose the first two official matches after being appointed to the position (the team is in last place and may well gain a foothold on it, given that he meets with Liverpool on Monday). Fans of the team, including its former stars such as Gary Neville, took the incident extremely painful. In Manchester, they are increasingly demanding that the Glaser family sell the team, believing that it was the policy of the club’s owners, who seized the funds they generated for their own benefit, that led to the current situation. In such a situation, Manchester United needs quick results to show that the disastrous start to the season is nothing more than an accident.

Alexander Petrov