![\"The](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/07\/thiago-almada-joins-atletico-madrid-1752773453-172642.jpg\" "\\"The")
<\/p>\nCompleted\u00a0<\/p>\n
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\n \u00a9TM\/IMAGO\n <\/p>\n
Atl\u00e9tico Madrid<\/a>\u00a0continue to strengthen their midfield ahead of the 2025\/26 season. After already signing midfielders \u00c1lex Baena and Johnny Cardoso, the club announced the addition of Argentine playmaker\u00a0Thiago Almada<\/a> from Botafogo<\/a>. The 24-year-old has signed a contract with Atletico Madrid until 2030. Atl\u00e9tico Madrid will pay \u20ac21m for 50% of Almada\u2019s rights to the Brazilian club.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n It is a complicated deal.\u00a0Atlanta United<\/a> sold Almada to the Eagle Group, owned by American investor John Textor,\u00a0in July 2024 in a deal worth up to \u20ac27 million<\/a>. Some of the parameters of that deal are now fulfilled, making the Argentine the second most expensive player in MLS history with an overall transfer fee of \u20ac24.15m, sources tell Transfermarkt. Atlanta can receive additional add-ons if Almada is sold by Atl\u00e9tico Madrid, potentially increasing the deal to a maximum of $31m or \u20ac27m. Almada joined Botafogo\u00a0with the intention of making a permanent move to\u00a0Olympique Lyon<\/a>\u00a0in January 2025.\u00a0 That portion of the deal was completed as planned on 15 January 2025. Severe financial problems at Lyon then led to a change in leadership to avoid relegation from Ligue 1.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Ares, the investment fund and main creditor of the club, removed American businessman Textor from the presidency and appointed Michele Kang, also from the United States, as the new president of the club. As part of those financial problems that include reported debts in the region of \u20ac175m, Lyon struggled to make the Almada deal permanent, and the Argentine was sent back to Botafogo rather than making his transfer to the Ligue 1 club permanent.<\/p>\n \nAlmada to Atl\u00e9tico Madrid \u2013 LaLiga side finally get their playmaker<\/p>\n Overall, it was an impossible situation for Almada. The 2022 World Cup winner has long harboured plans to play in one of Europe\u2019s top leagues. Indeed, the move from Atlanta to Botafogo was always intended to secure the Argentine’s services for Lyon. As a result, Almada sought an alternative solution this summer. Atl\u00e9ti, in turn, have been interested in the Argentine for some time and were among the clubs trying to sign Almada while he was still playing in Major League Soccer<\/a>.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n What sort of player will Atletico Madrid get in Almada? A classic no.10, Almada is almost an old-school playmaker with an incredible shot from distance. Indeed, YouTube is still filled with highlight reel goals scored by the Argentine. That\u2019s not surprising, given that Almada models his game after another famous Argentine playmaker with similar attributes. \u201cFor me, my main idol was always Riquelme,\u201d Almada said in an interview with Transfermarkt<\/a> in March 2024.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Completed\u00a0 \u00a9TM\/IMAGO Atl\u00e9tico Madrid\u00a0continue to strengthen their midfield ahead of the 2025\/26 season. After already signing midfielders \u00c1lex…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":18321,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[14864,4901,16954,16952,16953,16955,403,99,16956],"class_list":["post-18320","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-soccer","tag-atlanta-united-fc","tag-atletico-de-madrid","tag-botafogo-de-futebol-e-regatas","tag-laliga","tag-major-league-soccer","tag-olympique-lyon","tag-soccer","tag-sports","tag-thiago-almada"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18320","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18320"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18320\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/18321"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18320"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18320"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18320"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}