Mijatovic: Real Madrid Tracked Huntelaar

Real Madrid officially announced yesterday that the club have completed the signing of Dutch striker, Klaas-Jan Huntelaar from Ajax Amsterdam for an upfront fee of €20 million.

Speaking for the first time since the capture, Madrid’s sporting director Predrag Mijatovic gave his reaction to the successful transaction.

“The loss of [Ruud] van Nistelrooy forced us to accelerate our interest in Huntelaar,” he told Radio Nacional de Espana.

“We wanted to provide our coach [Bernd Schuster] and the players with an extra solution in attack and we decided to sign Huntelaar because he is a great goalscorer.

“We’ve been following him for the last two years and even though we had other options, we concluded that he would be best for us for our long-term project,” added Mijatovic.

There had been concerns over Huntelaar’s current condition and questions were raised over Madrid’s choice to sign a player who is injured at present.

“He has practically recovered now from his sprained ankle and I believe that it was a good deal for us. It has been very difficult to prise him away from a great club like Ajax,” he elaborated.

Finally, the sporting director spoke of his own team’s existing injury crisis, which has claimed almost the entire first starting XI.

“We have the same physios, the same doctors and the same style of work [as last season].

“But the club have met to speak about the issue and rest assured, we will find a solution,” he concluded.

--KS Leong, Goal.com