Rafinha arrives for Christmas

Rafinha Alcantara (Sao Paulo, 1993) will play for Real Sociedad from Paris Saint Germain from January 1 if the negotiations between both clubs and which are well advanced come to fruition in the next few hours. The left-handed midfielder, who would have already said goodbye to his teammates in the French team, would arrive in Donostia on loan without the txuri urdin club reserving a purchase option on the Brazilian international who has a contract in force with his current club until 2023. PSG paid 1.5 million euros to Barcelona for Rafinha last season.

The agreement is not closed but MD has been able to confirm that the harmony between both clubs is very good, as well as that from the footballer’s environment it is considered that the talks are well advanced. Confidence in being able to reach an agreement in Anoeta It is total and if the hiring is not 100% taken for granted, it is because important aspects of the negotiation that, yes, have more to do with the bureaucracy than with the lack of agreement, but that lead to the entity txuri urdin to wait prudently for the outcome of the operation. It would not be the first time that at this point the talks to sign a player break down.

Although the remaining fringes for Rafinha be a Real player the second half of the season are important, the operation will not be delayed in time and it could even be closed before Christmas. Although they are complicated dates, the Real does not rule out that the player can join training with his new teammates next week in Zubieta with what he would be in a position to debut on January 2 in Mendizorroza against Alavés.

Rafinha It would thus become Olentzero’s first gift to Imanol, largely by the will of the footballer himself. The son of little boy and the brother of Thiago He has transferred that his only wish was to make a stop at the Real and that firm desire of the Brazilian international has exercised a decisive weight in the operation.

The former Barcelona player wants to rush his options to be in the Qatar World Cup 2022 and for that he has to count on the minutes he does not have in Paris. This season he has barely played 221 minutes in five league games together with the Messi, Mbappe, Neymar and company and Rafinha he sees in the Real the ideal destination in which to revive a career that, at 28 years of age, is still at an ideal moment to succeed. The paulista understands that the Txuri Urdin club is a solvent project, which has been working well for years and fighting for Europe, in addition to having a game proposal that adapts to its qualities, which has led him to choose Imanol’s team as next season in an eclectic career that, in addition to the Spanish league, has led him to the Italian Serie A and the French League 1.

First and last transfer

La Real has started to work quickly with a view to the imminent opening of the winter market that will raise the curtain on January 1, but this does not mean that it intends to maintain a very active position in it. Unless there is some unexpected movement in the form of departures, the idea that commands the noble floor of the Anoeta stadium is that Rafinha be the first and the last addition to the winter market. Olabe has not been a friend, historically, to seek reinforcements at this time of year but if he signs Rafinha it will be the second consecutive winter in which he incorporates a footballer after the arrival in January 2021 of Carlos Fernandez.

Imanol It currently has 23 healthy footballers but it is foreseeable that in the first section of 2022 it will be able to recover, at least, to Monreal that, next to Rafinha, would raise to 25 the roster of footballers with whom to face all the challenges of the second half of the season. The Brazilian, who can play in the second or third height of the midfield, would reinforce a line that has suffered in its performance when they have not been Merino Y Silva.