One of the most surprising deals of the summer transfer window was the one that took Raphael Varane to Serie A when his Manchester United contract expired.
Football fans have become so accustomed to seeing 30-something superstars with big reputations and even bigger wage demands heading out to the Middle East.
Or, failing that, the USA, Turkey or occasionally even China.
So there was something rather refreshing about the sight of Raphael Varane taking his vast experience and his remarkable medal collection to Como.
Back in Italy’s top flight after 21 years away, this is not quite a ‘fairytale’. How can it be when you have the richest owners in Italian football pulling the strings, luring in the likes of Cesc Fabregas and Andrea Belotti?
But after over a decade of fighting for football’s biggest prizes at Real Madrid, Manchester United and France, the World Cup winning centre-back could not turn down the chance to become a pillar of this ambitious Como ‘project’.
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Raphael Varane has new home after Manchester United exit
”I’m very happy and excited about this new project,” Varane told the Como website upon his arrival on an initial two-year deal. “And I can’t wait to get started and meet up with the team and my team-mates.”
One of Varane’s team-mates – by the time the Lombardy outfit kick off the Serie A campaign away to Juventus on August 19 – may well be Timothy Fosu-Mensah.
A graduate of Man United’s fabled Carrington academy, Fosu-Mensah left Old Trafford in January 2021. Only a few months before Varane’s arrival from the Santiago Bernabeu.
Three-and-a-half years on – and having not played a minute during Bayer Leverkusen’s glorious Bundesliga-winning campaign – Fosu-Mensah remains on the free agent market, on the lookout for a fresh challenge.
Given that Como’s transfer strategy appears to be revolving around high-profile players hoping to feel important again, the 26-year-old Dutchman feels like a good fit.
Timothy Fosu-Mensah may be heading to Serie A
Gianluca di Marzio reports that Fosu-Mensah – who won an FA Cup under Louis van Gaal and a Europa League under Jose Mourinho – is now on trial at the Stadio Giuseppe Sinigaglia.
Como have turned their attention to the one-time Crystal Palace and Fulham loanee after growing frustrated in their pursuit of Copenhagen’s Kevin Diks.
Varane, meanwhile, goes into the new campaign without the pressure to at least challenge for top honours for the first time since leaving RC Lens for Real Madrid back in 2011.
Man United missed out on him at the time, though the Red Devils did take some measure of revenge 13 years on when snatching Leny Yoro from under Real’s nose.
“At first, I was curious to find out what the project was all about,” Varane adds when pressed further on how he was convinced to join the Como cause.
“Then, I immediately saw that it was special, different from any other I’d been offered. So I wanted to know more. The more I learned about the project, the more interesting it became, giving me a different perspective on what I wanted to do.
“Once the project came along, it went straight to the top of the list, and we managed to close the deal.”
from United In Focus https://ift.tt/eiO8x0Y