Shkodran Mustafi should be a Valencia CF player within the next 48 hours. Italian sources have declared that Sampadoria had accepted Valencia CF's bid for the 22 year old German which was about 8 million euros (possibly over two installments) plus bonuses. The deal agreed upon so far is a five year deal with wages 800,000 euros per season (four times as much as he earned in Sampadoria). Valencia CF edged out the likes of Juventus and Napoli for the player.
This deal will not be funded by Meriton Holding Limited (Peter Lim) but rather Valencia CF will use the cash earned for Mathieu's transfer to fund his replacement. Sampadoria was insisting on 15 million euros but eventually backed down to 8-9 million euros. Credit to Ayala and Rufete's long negotiations and the player's desire to play for Valencia CF. This deal is now very highly likely and reports say Mustafi will be in Spain tomorrow to finalize the details of his contact and sign.
As for Balanta, chances are realistically nil now. Other clubs, mainly Juventus, Galatasaray and Lazio have taken action and his destination lies in one of those three clubs. In the end, the lack of an EU passport was the major obstacle and proved too much a turn-off for his arrival in Valencia CF.
Mustafi is deemed by the management as a great future prospect, he has an EU passport (German), and according to them has the same profile as Mathieu.
Any thoughts?