Real Madrid have reportedly secured the transfer of goalkeeper Keylor Navas.
Spanish outlet Marca has stated that the current Champions League holders have signed the Costa Rican. The move will cost in the region of €10 million, the buy-out clause in the player’s contract with Levante.
Pending official confirmation, Keylor Navas is the latest addition to Real Madrid. ‘Los Blancos’ reached an agreement with Levante last week to pay the Costa Rican keeper’s buy-out clause, amounting to €10 million, of which eight will go to the club and two to the keeper.
With Navas only having one year remaining on his contract with the Spanish side, he would have become a free agent next summer. This would leave Levante having to lose him without any compensation.
Marca also reports that Real Madrid have beat off interest from a number of other European clubs in securing his services. Bayern Munich, Porto and Atletico Madrid were all interested in landing the 27-year-old goalkeeper.
Navas has been at Levante since 2012, joining from Albacete after spending a year at loan at the club during the 2011/12 season. After having his first team opportunities limited at the club he later became the regular first-choice number one and has gone on to play 46 league games for Levante.
He shot to fame over the past few weeks thanks to his heroics for his national side in the 2014 World Cup. The shot stopper has been an integral part of Costa Rica’s squad and has 58 senior caps.
Helping his country reach the quarter-finals in Brazil, where they were eliminated by the Netherlands in a penalty shootout. He managed to keep three clean sheets throughout the tournament and was named man of the match in the game against Greece after making several wonderful saves and stopping a penalty in the shootout.
The news follows the revelation from Marca that Diego Lopez, first-choice goalkeeper for Real Madrid for most of last season, is likely to leave the club this summer. The Spanish paper reports that he could join either Napoli or Monaco in the coming days.
The deal is a surprise not so much because of the identity of the player, who had an extraordinary World Cup, but the speed at which a deal has seemingly been concluded.
Let’s see him in action. Real Madrid fans: top stopper?
JUSTINEN LUKA MBEWE
Jul 17, 2014 at 3:52 pm
Real Madrid F.C has so many great players to buy and few few great players to create rooms for in-coming players. Why letting Angel Di Maria leave and still have faith in Xavi Alonso, Junior Marcelo, Aberoa,(Pepe ?)