The transfer has been closed at 16 million euros plus two targets and is given the green light after the addition of Kalinic to Atlético
The French attacker will commit to the entity of Mestalla until June 2021
The wait was worth it. Valencia and Atlético have finally sealed the agreement for the transfer of forward Kevin Gameiro to the Mestalla club. The striker was the great intended by Marcelino García Toral to prop up the attack. The Asturian, as he has done in each of the signings since he landed in the Valencian entity since last summer, spoke personally with the scorer to tell his project. With this operation ends the tug-of-war between Atlético and Valencia . The situation had apparently turned uphill, once the red and white entity changed the initial conditions of the transfer. In the end, the operation will close in 16 million fixed plus two in variables, and not the close to 13.5 million fixed that were negotiated in the beginning, in addition to 6.5 in variables. Atletico, therefore, insures more income through the fast track in their coffers and less by extras. Indicative that the agreement between both clubs was close was the fact that Simeone left him off the list last Sunday against VFB Stuttgart in a friendly match. It was the first time that the French striker was running out of minutes in a pre-season friendly. However, the official version was Gameiro suffered some annoyances. The exit of Gameiro of the Athletic one was conditioned to the arrival of the Croatian Kalinic to the Wanda Metropolitan. Although the positions between Valencia and Atlético could be close, Simeone insisted on not leaving a gap in the attack until it was not covered, as has been the case. Until the carom was produced, Valencia have with caution and without desperation endured the signing of the desired Gameiro. In this sense, coach Marcelino García Toral had publicly stated repeatedly that they were not going to change the roadmap in their preferences, even if the different fronts in which they work to reinforce the team were expanded. «We will wait within our market possibilities for those who we believe will complement and improve our squad, if we have to wait until August 31, we will wait,» he said after the game against Everton. Mestalla will see step on the grass of Mestalla to a striker intended since 2011 by coach Unai Emery. In fact, a pre-agreement was reached, which the player broke because he preferred to make the leap from Lorient to PSG on the recommendation of former France coach Laurent Blanc.