Pep Guardiola to add £12.5m midfielder to Man City squad in January

Manchester City will welcome Claudio Echeverri to their squad in January at the end of his loan to River Plate.

Teenage midfielder Echeverri signed for City last January for an initial £12.5m but stayed at his club in Argentina to continue his development, as Julian Alvarez had done in 2022. As part of the deal, it was agreed that Echeverri would remain at River until the end of 2024.

No plans were made for 2025, but City have now decided to bring the 18-year-old to Manchester in January to join Pep Guardiola and his first team squad. A first-team debut before the end of the season is possible if he impresses in training.

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City did similar with Maximo Perrone, a young midfielder brought over from Velez Sarsfeld in January 2023 who came off the bench in the Premier League and FA Cup before heading out on loan to Las Palmas for the 2023/24 season. This year, he is in Serie A with Como under Cesc Fabregas after spending the summer with Guardiola on the pre-season tour.

Echeverri has continued his progress this year, playing regularly for a River side that are in the semi-finals of the Copa Libertadores and representing Argentina in the Paris Olympics in the summer. Former City defender Martin Demichelis was River's manager until July 2024 and is excited about the player's future.

"Claudio is truly one of the great emerging talents in River's football," he said. "We have a great squad that always produces technically gifted players. However, the day-to-day whirlwind at River demands not only winning but being a protagonist in a very special way, trying to play