Atletico Madrid are very confident they’ve won the battle to sign Juan Manuel Sanabria, ahead of competition from the likes of Liverpool and Barcelona.
The Madrid club have excellent connections in South America which has enabled the signing of a string of top talent, but Liverpool and Barcelona have good relationships too.
On Monday, Spanish newspaper Marca explained the transfer situation, with Atletico thinking they have a deal in principle for the 16 year old left sided midfielder. However, there was worry over Liverpool’s excellent relationship with Club Nacional.
Sanabria visited Melwood for a period of training in 2015, and Liverpool have a good relationship with Nacional after the purchase of Sebastian Coates in 2011. Tuesday’s edition of Marca has a picture of Sanabria in his Liverpool kit during the spell in England.
Just how interested Jurgen Klopp and Liverpool are right now is unknown, it’s all up in the air. However, Sanabria is rated very highly, and Atletico have a worry about not being able to sign players in the January window, due to their FIFA ban.
Real Madrid have had their ban shortened to just the one window, January, but Atletico haven’t achieved the same yet and there’s no certainty they will. That could be a nudge to Liverpool and others keen on Sanabria.
A problem Liverpool may well face if they decided to try and beat Atletico is that Sanabria doesn’t have an EU passport, so they’d face a work permit battle.
