€73 million superstar agrees to join Barcelona after rejecting Real Madrid, Solskjaer demands the signing of top Manchester City transfer target and more: Transfer Roundup, 14 May 2019

Matthijs De Ligt chooses Barcelona over Real Madrid

With both Spanish giants, Real Madrid and Barcelona expected to undergo massive squad overhauls in the summer, they are expected to battle it out for a few players in the common areas that both teams need strengthening. The most prominent name on that list is that of Ajax captain Matthijs De Ligt's.

With Nacho Fernandez looking unreliable and Raphael Varane's intentions unclear, the Blancos are in desperate need of a quality centre-back. Barcelona, on the other hand, want to sell Samuel Umtiti and with Thomas Vermaelen also expected to leave in the summer, the Cules are expected to go all out in their pursuit of the Ajax centre-back.

However, De Ligt has already met with Barcelona's core set of representatives and wants to go to the Camp Nou in the summer. All that Bartomeu now needs to do is to show up and put the money on the table. The report also claims that De Ligt has reached an agreement with Barcelona over the numbers on his contract.

About the author

Shambhu is a European and international football journalist at Sportskeeda who focuses on previews, listicles and news articles. An ardent Manchester United supporter since before his teenage years, he started following the Red Devils by age 10 watching MUTV on television. Shambhu is also a highly-revered rapper and a playback singer on Spotify, having a whopping 1 million monthly listeners.

For his articles, Shambhu believes in triple-checking every piece of information, relying on trusted websites like Transfermarkt and Opta, and staying away from speculative publications. He believes that his law degree helped him to be more articulate and meticulous with his content and one of his core strengths is seamlessly involving emotion in his write-ups owing to the love for the sport. For Sportskeeda, has done exclusive interviews with Spanish legends Gaizka Mendieta and Fernando Morientes so far, and his articles boast of a huge readership of close to 50 million.

Shambhu's favorite footballer is Lionel Messi, and the Argentine attaining glory in 2022 is his favorite FIFA World Cup moment. He believes only Kylian Mbappe and Erling Haaland could replicate Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo's rivalry in the years to come. His favorite manager is Sir Alex Ferguson due to the Scot's unmatched longevity at the top.

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Edited by Sripad