Manchester City’s Brahim Diaz Agrees Deal With Real Madrid
By David Crook
Brahim Diaz is without doubt a talented young footballer who has the potential to become an excellent player in the years to come and Manchester City have been working hard behind the scenes to convince him to sign a new contract. But that would appear to have been rejected with news emerging that Real Madrid will shortly be announcing the signing of Diaz.
Diaz joined Manchester City as a youth player from Spanish team Malaga 5 years ago at the age of 14. Manchester City paid a transfer fee and compensation package in the region of £350,000 to Malaga and Diaz was introduced into the City Youth team.
His silky skills quickly made him stand out and he became an integral part of the trio of attacking players who formed the core of this young team – Jadon Sancho, Brahim Diaz and Phil Foden. Indeed of these players it was Diaz who was singled out most for praise by firstly Mike Summerbee, Manchester City Ambassador, and later by Pep Guardiola.
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But each of these trio of exciting young players faced the prospect of a patient wait to break into the City first team or to try and force their pathway to a career by seeking to either move to another club or to run down their contract to force the issue with Manchester City. As the players began to run their contracts down, City were in a delicate position.
Sancho was the first to go, amidst him refusing to attend for training and going AWOL, City reluctantly agreed to a sale to Borussia Dortmund which contained a hefty sell on clause and a buy back option. Foden, a local lad, from a family of Manchester City supporters was in a slightly different position and in 2018 he agreed a new long term contract with City. His route to the first team has become clearer and indeed he has featured in the starting line up a number of times.
This left just Diaz, who seemed to be suggesting he wanted guarantees about first team role before committing to a new contract. But City do not provide these assurances even to established international players so the longer the stand off continued the more likely it became Diaz was to move on.
His contract at City expires on 30 June 2019 but it is understood he has agreed a move now to Real Madrid for an initial fee of around £15 million plus some agreed future clauses relating to appearances. Indeed the announcement is expected within the next 48 hours because Real Madrid apparently want to play him in their upcoming Cup game.
It is a real shame Diaz has chosen to move on. He has the talent to succeed and it would have been good to see him develop further here under the tutelage of Guardiola. But the longer his contract stand off continued the less likely he was to get the game time at City he seemed to crave, creating a kind of Catch 22 situation where there may well be no winners.
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Diaz may find several players blocking his first team route at Real Madrid and may have to content himself with the reported £60000 per week wages he has negotiated. Regardless of the contract stand off and how he has come to leave City we nevertheless wish him well in his career.