Real Madrid sign €30m Theo Hernandez from rivals Atletico
ByReuters
Updated 05/07/2017 at 14:54 GMT
Real madrid have confirmed the signing of Atletico Madrid left-back Theo Hernandez who becomes the first player to cross the city divide since 2000.
Theo Hernández
Image credit: Getty Images
Real did not disclose the fee, believed to be around €30m, but said Hernandez signed a six-year contract and would be officially presented next Monday.
France under-20 international Hernandez, 19, has been with Atletico's youth system since 2008 and, despite never playing for the first team, has established himself in Spain's top flight while on loan at Alaves last season.
The defender, whose brother Lucas plays for Atletico and whose father Jean-Francois played for a string of clubs including Atletico, gained admiration for his explosive bursts down the left flank with Alaves last campaign.
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Deportivo Alaves' French defender Theo Hernandez (C) celebrates after scoring the equalizer during the Spanish Copa del Rey (King's Cup) final football match FC Barcelona vs Deportivo Alaves at the Vicente Calderon stadium in Madrid on May 27, 2017.
Image credit: Getty Images
He played 32 league games and made six appearances in the King's Cup, scoring a scorching free kick in their 3-1 defeat to Barcelona in the final at the Vicente Calderon, his only competitive appearance in Atletico's stadium.
News of the player's imminent departure from Atletico to Real leaked in the Spanish media last month on the eve of the Champions League semi-final second leg between the two clubs in May, cranking up ill feeling after a 17-year spell in which no player had directly joined one club from the other.
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Neymar and Theo Hernandez
Image credit: Getty Images
The last player to move immediately from Atletico to Real was former Argentina midfielder Santiago Solari in 2000, after Atletico had been relegated from Spain's top flight.
Former Mexico striker Hugo Sanchez is one of the most famous players to have crossed the divide, joining Real from Atletico in 1985 and helping them to five consecutive La Liga titles, while Bernd Schuster went the other way in 1990.
Atletico losing one of their hottest prospects in Hernandez to their rivals brings back painful memories of how Raul Gonzalez left their youth set-up as a teenager when it was dissolved in 1992, leaving the striker to join Real, where he went on to score 323 goals.
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