David De Gea Says Move To Manchester United Is Not Done

Despite Manchester United confirming reports that they had agreed to buy goalkeeper David de Gea from Atletico Madrid, de Gea said on Thursday that the deal is not done. He said that he will not consider his future until after the U-21 European Championships, according to his lawyer.

“News has appeared in various media outlets that Atlético Madrid’s David de Gea has signed for Manchester United. I hereby notify you that it is not true a deal has been signed. De Gea will not consider the contract extension offer from Atlético or any other offer until June 30 when he has finished his commitments with the Under-21 national team.”

Manchester United is in search of a goalkeeper with Edwin van der Sar set to retire after the UEFA Champions League final. It appeared as if de Gea would be the replacement and a fine one at that after emerging as one of the world’s top young goalkeepers. In fact, United manager Sir Alex Ferguson spoke about de Gea to the club’s website on Tuesday.

“We’ve been working on it for quite a while. We identified him quite a while back as one we should go for. He’s a young goalkeeper, very quick, good composure, presence and an outstanding replacement for Van der Sar. We were looking for the same type of qualities as Edwin, because the one great quality Edwin always had was his composure and organisational ability. With David de Gea, he is very similar that way.”

Now Ferguson will have to wait until later int he summer to finalize any deal with de Gea. It is possible that the Red Devils look elsewhere for a goalkeeper or they may wait until June 30 and try to finalize things with de Gea. At the same time, Atletico is looking to extend de Gea’s contract beyond its current expiration in 2013.