Manchester United Unable To Complete David De Gea Transfer With Real Madrid Before Deadline

In this day and age of communications, it’s not very often you hear of a deadline being missed due to late paperwork. But that’s what happened today when the Spanish soccer transfer deadline passed, as Manchester United saw a deal with Real Madrid for goalkeeper David De Gea fall through because of the official paperwork not being received in time.

Reports say that Man United and Real Madrid had a deal in place to send the frustrated goalkeeper over to Spain. In addition to a £29 million transfer fee, Real Madrid would’ve sent over Keylor Navas to Old Trafford. However, the paperwork allegedly got to La Liga’s offices at 11:01 local time, a minute past the European transfer deadline.

Manchester United officials are fighting the deadlock, saying that a timestamped document to FIFA’s transfer center proves that the deal was made in time.

De Gea has yet to start for Man United this season, as manager Louis van Gaal has kept him out of the lineup amid speculation that De Gea wanted to return to Madrid and leave the Red Devils. As it stands, not only would United be stuck with a player with no desire to play for his club, but also lose out on a lucrative deal. It also doesn’t help matters that with less than 24 hours left in the English transfer window, United have done much more selling in a stage where they were reportedly linked to adding many big name players throughout Europe.

The English transfer window lasts one day further than the rest of Europe and will close at 1 pm EST on Tuesday. If Manchester United would like to make any more deals, they’d best get their paperwork in on time this time around.