Image: Source

After six years with the fantastic Edwin van der Sar between the posts, Manchester United replace the recently retired Dutchman with 20 year old David de Gea of Atletico Madrid, a signing that’s been waiting to happen for quite a while now. Today, the English champions have announced that they have completed the signing of the young goalkeeper.

De Gea (20) came from Atletico Madrid for a hefty price , 18 million pounds. He won the European U-21 title with Spain earlier this week and has been Atletico’s man in goal for the last two seasons. He signed a five year contract to keep at Old Trafford and is Ferguson’s third signing in the off season so far, following Phil Jones (Blackburn) and Ashley Young (Aston Villa).

De Gea did speak to MUTV and obviously showed his excitment with the new club and opportunity of titles – I feel very proud and I can’t wait to start playing here, when a club the size of Manchester United comes in for you it obviously makes you very, very happy. I saw their interest as an extra motivation to work even harder to show off my ability. It’s a great privilege to be part of a club like United and I’m keen to do my best and show what I can do.

Image: Source

Van der Sar won 4 Premier League titles, made three Champions League finals and won one in 2008. The last time United had to find a replacement for a legendary keeper (Schmeichel), it took them quite some time before finally finding the right man for the job. Despite David de Gea being very talented and his young age leads to the possibility of having a quality keeper to man your goal for at least a decade, I’m pretty sure Ferguson would rather have had Manuel Neuer make his way from Schalke. De Gea is talented, but it’ll take time before he makes fans forget about Van der Sar, if at all.