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Premier League legend Thierry Henry has strongly suggested that Real Madrid sold Raphael Varane to Manchester United due to a “knee issue.”
United signed Varane in 2021 from Madrid in a deal worth around £41m including add-ons.
While in Spain, the centre-back won 18 trophies with Los Blancos, including four Champions League titles.
In total so far, Varane has made 89 appearances for United since he arrived at Old Trafford. He could have arguably made more but his time in England has been marred by consistently-occurring injuries and an inability to remain consistently fit.
When available for selection, the Frenchman has more often than not been very impressive. In particular, he has struck a formidable partnership with Lisandro Martinez, who is also currently sidelined while he undergoes recovery.
According to Henry who spoke on CBS Sports (via Metro), Madrid seemingly became wary of an issue with Varane’s knee and so elected to part ways with him.
The ex-striker said, “There’s one thing you have to give them [Real Madrid] a lot of credit for, the ability they have to make sure they build a team with keeping some of the old guard with them to make sure that they can explain to the guys coming, the young guys coming.”
“If you look at it, if [Kylian] Mbappe goes there, they’re going to have a team that can be dominating Europe and dominating their league for maybe six to seven years because they’ll all be young, Mbappe, Vinicius Junior, if Mbappe goes there, Rodrygo, [Federico] Valverde, [Aurelien] Tchouameni.”
“The one thing they do ever so well is they know when to get rid of players.”
He added, “I am not talking about the players that are logical to get rid of. I am talking about it was time for [Cristiano] Ronaldo. It was time for Casemiro. It was time for [Mesut] Ozil. It was time for Varane, which was more, I think, of a knee issue, if I understand well.”
“But if you think about those three – [Luka] Modric, [Toni] Kroos and Casemiro – they sold the youngest one. Why would you sell the youngest one? Well, they notified that those two can help the Valverde, the Tchouameni, [Eduardo] Camavinga and they do that ever-so-well and you have to give them credit because when you get rid of the players that I mentioned before, they were outstanding players at that time for your team.”
At the moment, Varane’s long-term future at United is in the air.
He is set to become a free agent this summer unless he and the Red Devils can reach an agreement over a new deal but on vastly reduced terms.
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