Diablitogate continues to add new chapters, but there are already some certainties. One of them is that Claudio Echeverriwill be transferred to Manchester City. The other, that in 2024 he will continue to wear the red band. Yes, the 17-year-old (he will turn 2 on January 18) will stay at River for at least a year and play in the next edition of the full Copa Libertadores (as far as Núñez's team goes).
"He's going to be here for all of 2024," a senior River official told Clarín. In this way, the turbulence generated by the player's statements at the Madre de Ciudades in Santiago del Estero ("I'm not going to renew," he said), after Martín Demichelis' team won the Champions Trophy after beating Rosario Central 2-0, will be stopped.
The fact that the youngster stays for another year gives Micho peace of mind, who has Echeverri as a key player for an important year, in which River will once again aim all its guns at the Copa Libertadores. And the Little Devil can give you the freshness your team needs. He showed it on Friday in the final of the Champions Trophy, in which he played as a starter, in the hooker position.
El Diablito had the pleasure of raising a glass with his idol, Enzo Pérez.
And it will also bring peace of mind to Echeverri himself, a symbol of the renewal that will come at River. After the explosion caused by his words, and the anguish it caused him, El Diablito spent Christmas in Chaco with his family and was more smiling in a photo he posted on his social networks.
As reported by Clarín, the footballer who shone in the U-17 World Cup will leave money to River. And in 2025 he will leave for Manchester City. It may be at the beginning of that year or in the middle of it, after the new Club Super World Cup. His stay in Núñez will depend on whether the club qualifies for that event, as well as luck in the 2024 Libertadores.
Meanwhile, the English club are finalizing the details. The amount to complete the transfer will exceed 20 million euros and River would be left with a capital gain. 85 percent of the contract belongs to the Millonaria institution, while the remaining 15% corresponds to Deportivo Luján de Resistencia, the club where El Diablito started, who after the sale will stay in Núñez on loan.
That is a modality that City applied in recent times, with very young players. For example, with the Brazilian Gabriel Jesus, who in 2016, at the age of 19, was signed by the Manchester club and they left him on loan for 6 months at Palmeiras.
The same happened with Julián Álvarez, who was bought by City at the beginning of 2022 and six months later traveled to England to join Pep Guardiola's team and start a path of glory, in which in a year and a half he conquered the Premier League, the FA Cup, the Champions League and the Club World Cup and was also a world champion with the Argentine National Team.
With a good pre-existing relationship between both River and the City Group, after the transfer of Álvarez, the parties entered a final phase of negotiation that will lead to a formal offer with an agreement in sight: in addition to the final number and the modality and terms of a payment in installments, in these hours the terms of the loan of Echeverri and the clauses to be activated during that loan will be finalized if eventually the English would like to have it sooner than projected.
Champions Trophy: Echeverri's second title at River.
With the chance to stay during 2024, El Diablito will be able to recompose from his actions on the field of play the discomfort generated in the fans by his statements, which were the product of innocence, since when he realized what he had said, the youth player did not stop crying and showing remorse.
It so happens that the people of River followed Echeverri's formative career very closely since he was in Infantiles and for seven years they have been looking forward to seeing him in action in the First Division. A forced sale hours after his first official match as a starter was evidently not what the public projected, even in this harsh economic context of the country.
When El Diablito referred to "not renewing", he scored, he unconsciously brought to light this agreement with City that is about to be sealed. And regardless of when he ends up going to England, he will have time to do his mischief in the shirt he loves the most, River's. That of the club that sheltered him since he was a child.