Manchester United have officially announced that they have reached an agreement with Real Madrid to bring in 28-year-old French center back Varane. However, similar to Sancho's experience, Varane will not be able to debut for United in the short term and will have to wait at least another week before joining the team for training.
Varane has agreed to sign a four-year deal with United, but first needs to obtain a UK visa with his family. Varane's wife Camille, who has known him since secondary school, has two children and the family will move to Manchester together. It could take up to a week for Varane to complete his medicals and integrate into the squad, as he is from Spain and will have to comply with home quarantine rules upon arrival in the UK and will not be able to train immediately. United signed Varane for £42 million, arguably a 10-year late addition. Fergie, Mourinho and Solskjaer had all been keen to get their hands on him.Fergie himself traveled to France in 2011, but Varane was eventually taken to Real Madrid by Zinedine Zidane and Mourinho, leaving United with no choice but to sign Phil Jones. After Real Madrid and Varane, Mourinho, who coaches Manchester United, also wanted to sign him, but at that time, Real Madrid asked for as much as 100 million pounds, Manchester United could not afford. Now, Varane's contract with Real Madrid is about to expire, Manchester United finally realized the dream of signing him. The French iron defender chose United, partly because of the high salary, on the other hand, he has been a United fan since childhood, with a poster of United's French "king" Cantona pasted on his bedroom, and he especially admires England's iron defender Rio Ferdinand, who had the same hairstyle as Mr. 30 million pounds when he was young. In Real Madrid's official statement announcing Varane's departure, the Galacticos said: "Real Madrid would like to express all their love for Varane and his family, and we wish him the best of luck in the next step of his career. We thank him for his dedication and for his outstanding performances in this decade, in which he has won 18 titles in our shirt: four Champions Leagues, four Club World Cups, three UEFA Super Cups, three La Ligas, one Copa del Rey and three Spanish Super Cups." Varane has personally won more Champions League titles than Manchester United FC and he also won the World Cup three years ago. He is eager to leave his comfort zone and rise to the challenge of assisting United to win another title. The French international speaks English and will bring to United a wealth of title-winning experience that his future partner Maguire does not possess. The latter has never won any title and has just seen his club and England lose two finals. Varane, on the other hand, has never lost any final. Varane is so reflective that during the Euros he demanded video clips of his opponents 48 hours before the game so he could get a feel for their playing characteristics. He had also already studied United's defensive situation and specifically asked for attention to be paid to the defensive organization of set-pieces. He has been told that this is unlikely to happen because United's set-piece defense was shapeless last season, and Solskjaer has just hired Chelsea youth team coach Eric Ramsey as a coach for set-pieces and 1-on-1 training.
