Barcelona agree €70 million deal for top transfer target, Adrien Rabiot to join Real Madrid on 2 conditions and more: Transfer Roundup, 21 May 2019

Barcelona agree €70 million deal for Matthijs De Ligt

According to the latest reports in Spain, Barcelona have been negotiating with Matthijs De Ligt's representatives and are now believed to have reached an agreement in the last 24 hours. Barcelona stepped up their pursuit after reports of other teams like Liverpool and Manchester United sniffing around surfaced.

The Ajax captain could be well on his way to reuniting with Frankie De Jong, his teammate at Ajax who will join Barcelona in the summer. Barcelona moved in the clear to get their man after Liverpool and Manchester United decided to take themselves out of the race altogether.

Barcelona will pay Ajax a sum in the ballpark of €70 million. There are suggestions that Mino Raiola is trying to raise the price in a bid to raise his commission, but the report claims that neither parties are interested in getting into a fix over the financial side of things.

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