Official: Arias, on loan to Bayer Leverkusen

Atlético and Leverkusen have made official the departure of Arias to the German team on loan for a season with a purchase option at the end of the course for about 12 million euros, which will be mandatory in the event that the Colombian plays 10 or more games this course. The player passed the medical tests last Wednesday and it only remained for the operation to be closed. He was one of the players who were on the exit ramp to leave the Wanda Metropolitano for several reasons. In the first place, because his position, that of right back, had three players (Trippier, Vrsaljko and him) and there was one left over. Also, of all of them, Arias was the exit that most fit in the plans of both the coach and the leaders of the entity, by occupying a non-community position. That made it impossible to register a player who was also one, having only three chips of this type and the others being taken over by basic players for Simeone such as Lodi and Felipe. With his march, Atlético may consider that Nehuén will finally stay in the squad.

Arias, 28, says goodbye after two seasons at Atlético in which he has participated in 51 games, totaling 3,871 ’in total, in which he has scored one goal and provided three assists.. The coffee grower came to the club in the summer of 2018 from Dutch PSV as a proven winger on the continent (he had been playing in Europe since the 2011-12 season). In his first year he played 33 matches between all competitions, being on the pitch 2477 ’(the 11th in minutes of the squad), more than the other right-hander of the team, Juanfran, who played 2335 ’. However, this course, with the arrival of Trippier and the return of Vrsaljko after his serious injury, has been losing importance and has only played 18 games, accumulating 1,394 ’(18th in minutes), half that of English (2730 ').

The Colombian he was a highly sought-after player in the market and, therefore, Atlético was in favor of giving it an outlet in order to obtain income with which to finance the arrival of players who are useful for Cholo, such as another midfielder. In the last few months had sounded for teams from Portugal (Porto and Benfica), Italy (Naples, Rome and Inter) and, above all, England (Wolverhampton, Newcastle and Everton). However, in the end none of them got away with it and it was Leverkusen who took the cat into the water and has managed to convince the rojiblancos to let him go out on loan and not transferred, as was his initial intention, although they can acquire it when the season ends if they wish, although they will be obliged to do so if it reaches the 10 games played.