It's official now. Diego Llorente leaves Real Sociedad to sign the next four years with Leeds United. The San Sebastian club announced late on Tuesday the principle of an agreement with Leeds United for the transfer of the Madrid center-back in exchange for an amount close to 20 million euros. “Real Sociedad and Leeds United have reached an agreement in principle for the transfer of Diego Llorente to the English team. The definitive agreement is subject to the player's medical check-up ”, the San Sebastian club announced in a brief statement in which it also wanted to thank him for his work as a Txuri-urdin-urdin player for the last three years. “The Royal Society would like to thank Diego for the professionalism and commitment shown during the three years that he has belonged to the realistic discipline, at the same time that he wishes him the best for his personal and professional future ”.
The operation is not at all negative for the San Sebastian entity, because He is going to earn around 20 million euros for a player for whom he once signed as Real Madrid property for 6 million euros. Although his clause was 50 ‘kilos’, the player's desire to end his stage at the Real and his current market value show that the agreement is positive. With everything, All the money from the operation will not enter the Real into its coffers, because in its day Real Madrid kept a percentage (30%) of the capital gain from the future sale of the Madrid central to another club, with which if the capital gain from the sale of Llorente is 14 million, about 4 belong to Real Madrid.
The departure of Diego Llorente was an open secret, because comes just after he was not in the starting eleven of Real Sociedad against Real Madrid on the last day of the league. The international center-back ended his contract with Real in 2022, and the San Sebastian club had not contacted its agent to review it, because they assumed that if a good offer came, they would accept their transfer, as has happened with Leeds. The figure for the operation is similar to the one raised by Monaco in January, with the difference that at that time the San Sebastian club had no reaction capacity.
Mario Hermoso, the desired
Now the Real must accelerate to find a replacement for Diego Llórente in the axis of the rear, because that area of the team is very touched. The desired one is Mario Hermoso, in which they have been working in the technical secretariat all summer, but that it is not an easy operation, because the Madrid center-back is convinced that he can triumph at Atlético de Madrid and does not want to leave, although he values the realistic interest, which was the one who first contacted him when ended last season. Atlético does want to take advantage of this sale of Llorente to place Hermoso in La Real, and to be able to obtain economic performance from your sale, at the same time that the debt that he has with the San Sebastian is settled for the amount that corresponded to him for the transfer of Griezmann to Barcelona. The harmony between clubs is total, the agreement would not be complicated, but first they must convince Mario Hermoso to accept his departure from the mattress club.