Real Madrid and Chelsea to pull off stunning swap deal, Manchester United to launch £162 million bid for Real Madrid superstar and more: Transfer Roundup, 20 December 2018

By Shambhu Ajith

Modified Dec 23, 2018 13:16 GMT

Atletico Madrid brush aside claims that Lucas Hernandez will join Bayern in January

Lucas Hernandez and Antoine Griezmann in training

After Marca ran a report yesterday that Bayern are all set to trigger Lucas Hernandez's release clause and sign him in January, Atletico Madrid have come out and denied it.

The club released an official statement:

"Following the story published by the Marca newspaper on an alleged deal between Bayern Munich and our player Lucas Hernandez, according to which the German club is to trigger the Frenchman's buyout clause in the January window, Atletico de Madrid wishes to state that, in conversation with our club, Lucas Hernandez has denied any deal with Bayern Munich and also any intention to exit our club.

"Additionally, the excellent relationship between Atletico de Madrid and the German club has led Bayern Munich to deny said operation during a conversation between officials of both clubs."

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