Manchester United lose £22.5 million on Angel di Maria sale

PSG signed Angel di Maria from Manchester United for a fee of £44 million

Manchester United have made losses of £22.5 million on the Angel di Maria’s sale to Paris Saint-Germain due to the Sterling-Euro exchange rate, according to a statement made by Foreign exchange broker Feonix Partner.

The Argentine winger moved to Old Trafford last summer for a club-record £59.7 million but was allowed to leave the club in the recent transfer window, after experiencing a disappointing debut season in the English Premier League.

United had already made a £15 million loss on the deal when they were pressured by their winger to let him leave the club following his participation in the recent Copa America. They sold the 27-year-old for£ £44 million to the cash-rich PSG who got a surprisingly good deal, and were likely to have also lost an extra £7.5 million as calculated by Feonix Partners in their statement.

"Since mid-September 2014, GBP/EUR has steadily risen from below 1.2400, reaching a high of 1.4415 in July 2015 and gaining more than 20 cents (17 percent) in 10 months.” the statement read, as quoted on ESPN. “As a result, UK clubs buying players in Europe have enjoyed a sharp fall in the sterling costs of their European transactions.”

"However, when selling players to European clubs the situation has reversed. When Manchester United bought Argentine winger Angel Di Maria from Real Madrid on Aug. 26 2014 the cost was £59.7m at a rate of 1.2558. When the club sold the same player to Paris Saint-Germain for just £44.3m on Aug. 6 not only did they lose £15m on the player, but they are also likely to have lost a further £7.5m (exact figure is £7,575,300) due to the exchange at the time."

English clubs will lose 11 percent on the currency exchange as a result of the weaker Euro

However, despite the presence of a weak euro, the Red Devils’ summer has actually been significantly boosted by the exchange rate. They along with the all the other clubs in the Premier League have saved more than £85 million on European players, which means Louis van Gaal’s team got good value for the arrivals of Torino’s Matteo Darmian, Bayern Munich’s Bastian Schweinsteiger, PSV’s Memphis Depay and Monaco forward Anthony Martial – who is currently the world’s most expensive teenager.

"Although payments to the top UK clubs playing in the UEFA Champions League have risen dramatically for the 2015-2016 season, increasing from €37.4m to a maximum of €54.5 (a hike of 46 percent), the exchange rate from the date of first round matches in 2014 (16-17 Sept. 2014) to today has dropped 11 percent.” the statement continued.

"As a result English clubs will lose 11 percent on the currency exchange as a result of the weaker Euro."

Richard de Meo, who is the Managing Director of the foreign exchange solutions and services specialist, had this to say about the whole matter, "The ongoing uptrend has punished anyone who was tempted into booking forwards as they would have subsequently missed out on favourable moves thanks to further Euro weakness."