How a lie helped David De Gea sign and come through the ranks at Atletico Madrid

On Wednesday, Atletico Madrid locked horns with Manchester United in the first meeting between the two sides in 30 years. The occasion witnessed ex-Atleti keeper David De Gea face his former club for the first time since swapping Madrid for Manchester twelve years ago.

But De Gea’s journey to the top wasn’t straight forward.

Born in Madrid, the Spaniard grew up in the town of Illescas and while playing youth football there, he was scouted by Atlético to join their academy, aged 13. But to convince a Los Rojiblancos scout to watch De Gea and sign him up, it took a white lie from his coach at the time.

Juan Luis Martin was De Gea’s youth coach and recommended the youngster to ex-Atleti keeper turned scout Diego Garrido. When De Gea’s family didn’t receive a call from Atlético, Martin reached out again to the club, explaining he was about to sign with rival Madrid-side Rayo Vallecano.

But that wasn’t true – there was no agreement in place.

A few days later, Garrido went to watch De Gea in action, and signed him up after only watching one half of his match for the youth team. From there, the shot-stopper never looked back.

He burst onto the scene at Atlético Madrid as an 18-year-old and had been touted as the next big thing ever since joining the academy.

He rapidly rose up the ranks and signed his first professional contract at 17 and made his professional debut at 18 in a 2-0 defeat away to Porto in the Champions League.

Three days later he made his La Liga debut against Real Zaragoza. He gave away a penalty but made amends by saving the spot-kick, helping his team claim all three points in a 2-1 victory.

De Gea built a reputation for himself as a world-class shot stopper and after breaking into the first team at Atlético as a teenager, he held down the spot and made it his own.

By the end of his second season, he had already proven himself amongst Europe’s elite, keeping three clean sheets during Atleti’s Europa League winning campaign in 2010. The most pivotal clean sheet was in the first leg of the semi-final against Liverpool, in which he pulled off multiple top saves, cementing himself as a top-class keeper.

He appeared 84 times for Atletico de Madrid, keeping 23 clean sheets and quickly became the most sought-after young goalkeeper in Europe. He moved to Manchester United in June 2011 for £18.9 million, which was a record-fee for a goalkeeper, at the time.

Earlier this year, De Gea broke Manchester United’s club record for most league appearances from a non-English player. The Spaniard had accumulated 474 appearances and kept 163 clean sheets in his time at Old Trafford.

After helping Atletico to their historic Europa League triumph in 2010, De Gea has gone on to win every domestic trophy in England, and another Europa League trophy – the only trophy eluding him at United is the Champions League.

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