River Plate Techincal Secretary Enzo Francescoli has revealed why the club fought to keep Julian Alvarez at the club on loan after Manchester City bought him in January.
City moved quickly to secure the Argentine youngster’s signature in the January transfer window, paying £15.3m to get him ahead of growing competition.
The 22-year-old was immediately loaned back to River Plate for the rest of the season, though, with them fighting to keep hold of him at least on an interim basis.
That deal is set to expire at the end of this year, although Manchester City have an option to pay and bring the young striker to the club in the summer.
At the minute, it appears he will spend pre-season under Pep Guardiola before they make a decision on what to do with him ahead of next season.
For the time being, he remains a River Plate player, a situation Francescoli says they were determined to ensure happened as part of negotiations with Manchester City.
“For us, it’s better for the player to stay here,” La Pagina Millonaria report him saying.
“We try to look after the player, and he knows that. There is an age issue. Sometimes guys leave very young, and it’s hard for them.
“It depends on the league they go to as well. It’s very difficult to make the leap to Europe and for everything to work out.
“I think the big teams in Europe know that process and try to find that security, that they arrive with an intermediate step by another European club or that they arrive already made, as it happens today with Julian.”
