Get ready for Manchester City’s next big thing... in about a year.
The Premier League champions have signed Claudio Echeverri, who turned 18 earlier this month, from Argentine power River Plate.
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He’s going back to River for a year on loan, where he’ll continue to develop under former City man Martin Demichelis. The rumored price tag is around $15 million.
He has an extremely limited first-team sample size, debuting recently and playing 75 minutes across four matches, but few players have as much hype as City’s latest signing.
Who is Claudio Echeverri?
This is a prolific playmaker at the Argentine youth levels who is known for his wicked dribbling skills and we will hopefully see shine at the 2024 Olympics — it’s a matter of whether Argentina qualifies, not if he’s on the roster.
Echeverri has dominated at the U-17 level, with 13 goals and five assists in 22 appearances stretching from March 2022 to last month. He scored a hat trick against Brazil in the U17 World Cup quarterfinals as part of a five-goal, 1-assist tournament that ended with Argentina losing the third-place game to Mali.
Like Julian Alvarez, a River Plate export, there are Man City connections at the club and we know Pep Guardiola loves a recommendation from someone he trusts well. Argentina has been a happy hunting ground for City, with Sergio Aguero, Pablo Zabaleta, and Javier Mascherano all prod members of the Albiceleste.
And River Plate produced Mascherano, as well as Enzo Fernandez, and Gonzalo Montiel, and Alfredo Di Stefano, and Hernan Crespo, and multiple Higuains. There’s a lot of hope and hype around Echeverri, who is not related to Bolivian star Marco Echeverry but compared to him.