Revealed: How David de Gea's move from Manchester United to Real Madrid collapsed

Going nowhere: David de Gea will have to stay at Old Trafford
Matthew Peters/Man Utd via Getty Images
James Olley1 September 2015

David de Gea is set to stay at Manchester United until January at the earliest after Real Madrid admitted defeat in their attempts to sign the goalkeeper on deadline day.

The Spanish transfer deadline passed at 11pm UK time last night with Real insisting they had registered the necessary information through FIFA’s online transfer management system (TMS).

La Liga officials claimed this morning that no paperwork has been received and it is understood that Real indicated to FIFA they would appeal before deciding against doing so on the grounds that they had no chance whatsoever of being successful.

The calamitous collapse of De Gea’s move is a huge embarrassment for all parties given De Gea had made it clear months ago that he wanted to leave for Madrid. Real were always confident of driving down the price given the player’s desire to leave but it is believed that they only submitted their first, formal bid yesterday afternoon.

The clubs eventually agreed a fee of £29million with Real goalkeeper Keylor Navas moving to Old Trafford as part of the deal but Real failed to register the deal with the relevant football authorities and the whole situation descended into farce.

Real are thought to have contacted FIFA this morning with the intent of lodging an appeal but there is no precedent for such a process. The Premier League and the Football Association tightened up the regulations regarding player registration following a similarly fraught case involving Andrey Arshavin’s move from Zenit St Petersburg to Arsenal in 2009.

On that occasion, Arsenal were given an extension as they had written proof of an agreement prior to the deadline but were unable to submit that evidence in time due to a technical error.

United insist they have done everything in accordance with the rules and the mistake is at Real’s end.

What to expect on transfer deadline day

1/10

Teams had to confirm their 25-man Champions League group stage squads today and the official UEFA account revealed that De Gea was registered by United and not Real.

A tweet from UEFA’s official Champions League Twitter account read: “Confirmation that @D_DeGea will 100% remain a @ManUtd player #UCL #DeadlineDay.”

Real president Florentino Perez was due to hold a press conference this afternoon to explain the fiasco. United, meanwhile, will look to complete the £36m signing of Monaco striker Anthony Martial, making him the world’s most expensive teenager.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in