Lassana Diarra Confirmed as a Galactico Today

Former Chelsea and Arsenal midfielder Lassana Diarra will officially leave Portsmouth today and join Spanish giants Real Madrid on a four and a half year deal.

The much reported transfer will be for a staggering £20 million, which the Pompey manager Tony Adams incidentally wants to be used to spend on new players to strengthen his squad. The offer is four times the amount they played for him in January.

It was also reported that Mark Hughes’ struggling Manchester City side were also after the French international, however, it was confirmed by both Real Madrid and Portsmouth yesterday that the transfer would go through today if a medical was passed.

The Spanish capital has already seen another new signing before the opening of the January transfer window, as Klaas-Jan Huntelaar joined earlier this month.

In relation to when we will see the player in action for Madrid, it is unclear whether Diarra will be playing for them against Liverpool in the Champions League, due to Pompey’s involvement in the UEFA Cup.

The complication is because Madrid can only register either Huntelaar or Diarra for the knockout stages for the Champions League. I personally think they will go with the Dutchmen as Madrid will need goals to get past Liverpool and progress further in the competition.

Diarra has been on top form this season and has scored a total of three goals in his 31 games for the south coast side.

Diarra has moved to Madrid due to fellow defensive midfielders Ruben De La Red and Mahamadou Diarra being out for the season.

In my opinion he will end up a reserve player once the two other midfielders I have talked about come back from injury, but with the obvious talent he has, he will be a popular transfer target once again, when this happens.