Uruguay centre half Sebastian Coates is set to join Liverpool from Nacional for £7M in one of the transfer swoops of the summer. The defender made his name for himself leading his boyhood club to back to back titles in his home country, and at 20 has impressed ever further on the biggest stage, being named young player of the tournament in the 2011 Copa America (which Coates' defensive partnership with Diego Lugano in the Uruguay side helped win).
Liverpool Land Sebastian Coates
Liverpool have managed one of the deals of the summer in landing 20-year-old centre back Sebastian Coates for a fee believed to be around £7M.
Liverpool are getting a do-it-all centre back with surprising speed, power and tactical awareness, and they’re getting him for exceptionally cheap. This is the sort of deal you expect a feeder club like Udinese or a Primeira Liga team to make, and the fact that Liverpool are getting involved speaks to impressive management on their part. Of course, it’s not hard to identify Coates as a good player - one simply needed to watch this summer’s tournament to realise that he was a phenomenal centre half, but at the end of the day, Liverpool were the only English team to pursue him seriously, something that I suspect the rest of the league may come to regret.
For his part, Coates is (naturally) sad at leaving a club with whom he spent seven years, leaving this goodbye message for the fans:
Too many memories. The biggest memory is the first time you get to Central Park when I was 11. I have been through a lot within the institution and are all fond memories. With the fans I have only words of thanks... I’ll wear the shirt again and I look forward to Nacional’s support when that happens.
Liverpool fans will be hoping that Coates won’t be wearing the Nacional badge for a good few years yet. Kenny Dalgish, Damien Comolli and company have landed a fine player. The only question that remains is how quickly Coates can receive a work permit in England.
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