Manchester United have confirmed that Harry Maguire has completed an £80m move to Old Trafford from Leicester City on a six-year contract with the option to extend for a further year.
The deal makes Maguire the most expensive defender of all time, surpassing the £75m spent by Liverpool on Virgil van Dijk in January 2018.
United and Leicester, who have been locked in negotiations for most of the summer, reached an agreement over a transfer fee on Friday, with the Englishman completing a medical at Old Trafford on Sunday.
With everything finally done, United announced their third signing of the summer on social media.
We have an important announcement to make…
— Manchester United (@ManUtd) August 5, 2019
Forget Paulo Dybala and Romelu Lukaku for a second. Forget even Bruno Fernandes. Above all, before anything else, this transfer is what United needed to do and they have, thankfully, got it over the line.
Some may raise questions about the ‘exorbitant’ fee demanded by Leicester, but this was a bitter pill which United – much like Liverpool, with their awful defence under Jurgen Klopp between 2014 and 2018 – simply had to swallow if they want to move forward as a team.