Official: Bayern Munich sign Matthijs de Ligt for €80m
Carlo Garganese
- Updated: 19 Jul 2022 17:16 BST
- 4 min read
Breaking
Bayern Munich have completed the signing of Dutch international Matthijs de Ligt for a fee of more than €80m from Juventus.
Bayern and Juventus had been in negotiations for the last few weeks and reached a final agreement on Sunday evening, with the final fee set at more than €80m.
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De Ligt has signed a five-year contract in Bavaria that runs until 2027. He underwent the second part of his medical on Tuesday morning before the deal was made official.
Juventus had been keen to keep De Ligt, but the Dutch defender made it clear that he had no intention of extending his contract that was due to expire in 2024.
This put Juventus in a situation where they risked De Ligt’s transfer value plummeting in a year’s time when there would be just 12 months left on his contract.
The Bianconeri thus made the decision to sell De Ligt and they held negotiations with both Chelsea and Bayern in recent weeks.
But, De Ligt made it clear that Bayern were his preferred destination, causing Chelsea to pull out of talks.
Der #FCBayern verpflichtet Matthijs #DeLigt von Juventus Turin. 🔴⚪
🔗 Alle Infos: https://t.co/DxtySGW6SA
#ServusDeLigt #MiaSanMia @mdeligt_04— FC Bayern München (@FCBayern) July 19, 2022
Bayern used the money they received from selling Robert Lewandowski to Barcelona for €50m on De Ligt.
Juventus have now lost two influential defenders this summer after Giorgio Chiellini moved to Los Angeles FC.
What has been said?
In an official statement released by the club, De Ligt said: "I am very happy to become a player of this great club. FC Bayern is the most successful club in Germany, one of the most successful clubs in Europe and the world.
"From the very beginning, I felt an honest appreciation of the sporting leadership, the coach, and the board, which convinced me. In addition, FC Bayern is an outstandingly managed club with big goals. I am very happy that I am now part of the history of FC Bayern."
Bayern's sporting director Hasan Salihamidzic added: "I am very happy that Matthijs de Ligt will play for FC Bayern in the future. We wanted to bring Matthijs to Munich three years ago.
"We were convinced of his qualities as a defender at the time, and we are all the more so today. With his professionalism, his greed and his wonderful character, Matthijs fits in with our team as well as our ambitions.
"He will play an important role at FC Bayern on and off the pitch. He was already a leader at Ajax Amsterdam as a teenager, and at 22 years old he is still capable of development at the high level at which he operates."
De Ligt at Juventus
He moved to Juve from Ajax for €75m in 2019 but has been largely underwhelming in Turin.
He won the Serie A title in his first season but was part of the team that finished fourth twice in succession in the two seasons after.
In total, he made 117 appearances for Juventus, scoring seven goals.
