Transfer news: Atletico star Mattia Destro sold to Paris St.-Germain for record €60M
In an expensive turn of events, Destro has to decided to move and swap Madrid for Paris.
Having already spent €32M on luring Angel Correa away from Los Colchoneros, Paris St.-Germain has now spent another €60M on bringing star striker Mattia Destro over to the Parc-de-Princes, where the Italian has signed a five year contract.
24 year old striker Mattia Destro officially put pen to paper on a five year contract with PSG this morning, to be earning wages of €180k per week through 2020. Many people are shocked at this sudden transfer just before the start of the proper season; the fee is the largest ever received by Atletico de Madrid.
Last year had been Destro's first and only season with Atleti. He had truly broken onto the scene the year before when he scored 13 goals in 20 Serie A appearances for AS Roma, earning him a €14M part-exchange over to La Liga's reigning champions.
Last year, he really started to put his name on the fans' lips by scoring 19 goals and 7 assists in 30 La Liga appearances, finishing third in the race for the prestigious Pichichi award. He ultimately scored 24 goals in all competitions, stealing the starting spot from Croatian target man Mario Mandzukic. He continued his fine form on the international stage as well and has now scored 9 goals in 14 caps for Italy.
The striker's fine form attracted the interest of two of Europe's giants; Bayern Munich and Paris St.-Germain. The French moneybags easily beat out their German counterparts with the €60M bid, however, and a heftily-paying contract later, Mattia Destro was headed to France.
"I am very excited to start my journey in France," Destro told the press in broken French at his unveiling. "I want to thank everyone back in Madrid for my excellent time there, but now it is time for bigger and better things."
We are still unclear on who Michael Laudrup will look to bring in to the Estadio Vicente Calderon to provide competition for Mandzukic. The Dane was supposedly a long-time follower of Munir El Haddadi, but with the youngster gone off to his brother Brian at Dortmund, Michael's gaze has reportedly turned to Brazilian starlet Gabriel Barbosa and Juventus hit-man Fernando Llorente.
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