The complex renewals of Koke and Mario Hermoso with Atlético | Soccer | Sports

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The present tells Atlético that this Saturday they have an opportunity to close the year with a victory against Sevilla (16:15, DAZN) that will allow them not to drop too far from the fight for the league title. The most immediate future dictates that both Koke and Mario Hermoso, whose contract ends on June 30, will be free on January 1 to negotiate with any club.

Both renovations are complex because in their background the sports and the sentimental are intertwined with the economic. Atlético is immersed in a policy of downward renewals that Diego Pablo Simeone, Álvaro Morata and José María Giménez have already gone through in recent months. The red and white leadership assures that Koke (31 years old) and Hermoso (28 years old) are also not outside that line of reduction of the salary mass drawn by Miguel Ángel Gil Marín.

This has meant that, for the moment, they have not yet reached an agreement with the representation agency that they both share. The contexts of both are different, but the continuity of both is also linked by their status as untouchables for Simeone.

In the case of Koke, his status as captain and symbol of the entity comes together with being one of the players with the highest salary on the team, around nine million euros net. In 2014, under the protection of winning the 2014 League title, reaching the Champions League final and the interest of Barcelona, ​​he signed a juicy contract until 2019. In 2017, that contractual relationship was extended until 2024. The club recognizes that Koke earned these high salary conditions and has defended them with his performance and his way of carrying out the captaincy. However, the entity also claims to have sent him a first offer that considerably reduced his current emoluments. So much so that he showed a certain coldness when he spoke about it at the Movistar microphones a month ago. “I am really enjoying and very happy with the work done so far. I don’t know how far I’ll go. I have been athletic all my life and I will try to play as many games as possible. It’s not up to me,” he said. His message created concern among the social masses, who have already begun chanting his name at every opportunity they can to send a message to the property. She believes that the most normal thing is that an agreement will end up being reached.

The same does not happen with Hermoso because he, at 29 years old, is facing the opportunity to sign one of his last big contracts. He has a bigger market than Koke and the club knows first-hand that he has offers from the Premier League. Left-handed centre-backs who come out with the ball played are not plentiful. The latter is a highly appreciated characteristic now that the game paradigm that is imposed is to play the ball from behind to attract the rival’s pressure and break him with passes into the space of the player who is free.

Hermoso was key in the 2021 league title when Simeone took his first step to play a more elaborate game. In that sense, he was also fundamental for the necessary recovery of football and results that the team experienced after the World Cup in Qatar. Hermoso cannot introduce into the negotiation the asset of what Koke means for the fans, but now no one disputes his identification with the club and with Simeone’s project. His letter is that the coach is aware of how complicated it can be to find a replacement with the financial limitations with which Atlético goes to the market.

Recently, Hermoso set this last game of the year against Sevilla to begin to outline a decision: “It is my fifth season here, Atlético means a lot to me, it is a lot of learning time with Cholo, I am a better player and I take that into account . After playing with Sevilla I will sit down and evaluate everything. Atlético is above everything, but there are also more issues.”

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2023-12-23 04:15:00
#complex #renewals #Koke #Mario #Hermoso #Atlético #Soccer #Sports