Valencia land Aimar in £16 million transfer

Argentinian midfield star Pablo Cesar Aimar will finally join Valencia in a £16 million transfer from River Plate.

After an extraordinary meeting of River Plate directors the Buenos Aires club president David Pintado has announced that 'Payasito' will be allowed to leave the club writes Rafael Salido.

Despite the fact that the player had made public his wish to sign for the current Champions League contenders last week, there were problems in the club as some directors did not want to see yet another key player leave, as Pablo Angel did recently to Aston Villa. In such a situation the only solution was to call an internal election in order to see whether the majority of the board members agreed with Aimar's departure. The result of the election that took place this afternoon, were 14 votes against 7 and so the player has been given permission to leave.

The Argentinian giants will be earning £16 million with the deal which is an important sum of money for them especially taking into account the huge debts that the club currently has. This economic situation had made River announce its intention of selling several players in order to solve the problem, however no-one in the club really wanted to see its 21 year old star leave as that may be a problem when they try to win the Clausura Tournament.

Pintado had accepted to let the international midfielder sign for Valencia, especially since the player was so keen on joining the Liga club.

Valencia is one of the favourite teams to win the league this season. However, Aimar will surely give more intelligence to the squad's midfield which is exactly what Argentinian coach Hector Cuper was looking for.

"I have spoken to the player and he has reiterated he wants to leave " Pintado told Argentine radio at the weekend. "Given this situation, it is going to be difficult to keep him."

"We have to respect the wishes of a player who wants to secure his economic future. In Spain they can pay amounts that we could never dream of here " he concluded.

Aimar wants the move to Spain to boost his wages and Valencia president Pedro Cortes talked up their chances of signing the player before Wednesday's Spanish transfer deadline after two bids to sign Aimar had earlier failed.

The Argentinian international had been recently linked with a move to Europe, in order to help River Plate solve its economic problems, but Valencia's bid has been a surprising move. With a strong and quick offer president Pedro Cortes tried to tie up one of the most stunning players in the current football panorama, which surely confirms Valencia as one of the favourites to win the Liga this year.

'Payasito' Aimar had become one of the most important players in the 'Millonarios' side in the last years and it was well known that after the Apertura Tournament his career would continue in Europe with Inter and FC Barcelona keen to sign him. Last summer both these big teams contacted him, but River never accepted to sell him at any price.

Things were getting uncertain for the play maker at Christmas when suddenly Cortes made a £12 million offer which was rejected at once. The Valencia president, having consulted coach Hector Cuper for his opinion, decided to raise the bid and made a final offer that finally River have now refused.

The 22 year old midfielder had been offered a £1 million per year, 7 year contract but his agent Gustavo Mascardi said any sale of the player could be slow and complicated. Aimar owns 15% of his own contract with Mascardi and is due that sum from a transfer pushing up River's fiancial demands. The Buenos Aires club also inserted a clause in his contract two years ago after interest from Italian clubs that Aimar would not be allowed to leave for less than £50 million.

Aimar is a talented and creative midfielder who likes having the ball and is most accurate in passing, where his imagination becomes one of his most powerful weapons. Argentinian Cuper had confessed lately that counting on Aimar would be a luxury as currently he is one of the best players in his position.

Who may not be that very pleased about the whole plan to buy Aimar is Slovenian Zlatko Zahovic, who joined the Champions League finalists last summer looking for a chance to play first team football. After an amazing spell in Portugal playing for Porto, the international midfielder signed for Olympiakos, where problems with the coach prevented him from succeeding. After a superb performance during Euro 2000, Valencia bought him, but since his arrival he has not been able to win a regular place in the first team. Aimar's arrival will surely complicate even more his situation and so the 27 year old ace may be leaving soon.