Welcome to “Vanchester” Angel Di Maria. Manchester United broke the all time British transfer record with a £59.7 million plus add-ons purchase from Real Madrid on Tuesday. on Thursday, Di Maria and Manager Louis van Gaal met the media as we saw the new #7 for the first time.
Here’s video of the first ever images of Angel Di Maria with his new club:
Speaking of Van Gaal and Di Maria, here’s a video reminding us of that classic Holland vs Argentina match-up in the World Cup this past summer:
“I’m very pleased to be at Manchester United, I like the team and I wanted to come here even though no Champions League football this season,” Di Maria said at the presser today.
“I want to help them reach the Champions League again. Manchester United have already won many trophies and are a very big team. I came here to help them raise their game and win many trophies with them.
“The fee does not bother me, that fact £60m is paid. That is for chairmen to negotiate. I come to play for the club and do my best for them.’
Angel Di Maria mentioned there that it was a boyhood dream for him to play for Man United.
Welcome to Old Trafford, Angel. #WelcomeDiMaria pic.twitter.com/s22CJ3CHT0
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 28, 2014
VIDEO: Check out the very first Di Maria 7 shirt being printed at the Old Trafford Megastore. #WelcomeDiMaria https://t.co/n8EBYKIURL
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 28, 2014
Di Maria on inheriting the No.7 shirt: “Cristiano Ronaldo spoke to me at Madrid and explained how important it is. I hope I can live up to it.”
Van Gaal doesn’t expect Angel Di Maria to hit the ground running! He said: “He has to adapt to the qualities of the team and the team has to adapt to his qualities.”
Van Gaal on Di Maria: “I hope he will give us results but we cannot expect he is the miracle that I am reading about.”
Paul M. Banks owns and operates The Sports Bank.net, which is partnered with Fox Sports, Yahoo! and the Chicago Tribune RedEye edition. He’s been a guest on news talk shows all across the world and been featured in hundreds of media outlets including NFL Network, Fox Sports 1 and ESPN2. Follow him on Twitter (@paulmbanks)