Donny van de Beek arrived at Manchester United from Ajax in 2020, with big expectations attached to the transfer. There’d been claims of an agreement with Real Madrid, although the Spanish media made clear that was simply Los Blancos being offered the chance to do a deal at €40m rather than them moving for the Dutchman.
Marc Overmars, then in charge of the transfers at Ajax, repeatedly used Real Madrid claims to try and get more money from elsewhere. Similar happened when Tottenham Hotspur were negotiating to sign Davinson Sanchez, and the Dutch media were often the vehicle to hype interest that wasn’t there.
Anyway, that all saw Van de Beek turn up at Manchester United with much hope attached to him and he failed to live up to that. Loans to Everton and Eintracht Frankfurt didn’t really go very well, but this summer he secured a great looking move to Girona.
The Red Devils let the midfielder go on a permanent transfer, with a fee which starts at €500k and could reach around €9m.
Girona today unveiled their new player and he spoke to the media about his reasons behind the move and what he’s looking for after a disappointing few years.
“The Champions League was not the reason for my arrival, it is fantastic to play in it but it was not the most important thing and I came to take a big step as a footballer.”
Van de Beek also said he’d spoken to former Manchester United and Ajax player Daley Blind about the move: “We talked about many things and shared ideas, I already had a clear idea of the team’s style of play.”
Now 27-years-of-age, Van de Beek has a chance to get his once promising career back on track and he’ll hope to get off to a great start.
