Atletico Madrid announce departure of icon – next club has been confirmed

Atletico Madrid have been busy in the last 24 hours, with two signings and now a contract termination having been announced.

Marc Pubill was confirmed as an Atleti player on Tuesday, and one day on, he has been joined in Diego Simeone’s squad by David Hancko, who joins from Feyenoord. But there has now been a significant departure – not in prominence, but in legacy.

On Wednesday, Atleti made official the exit of Saul Niguez. The 30-year-old midfielder, who has been out of favour at the RiyadhAir Metropolitano in recent years, has agreed to mutual terminate his contract, the club has confirmed.

“Atlético de Madrid and Saúl Ñíguez have reached an agreement for the termination of the contract of the midfielder from Elche. The homegrown player, who will face a new professional challenge, ends his red-and-white career after having defended our shirt on 427 occasions, which makes him the ninth player with the most appearances in the club’s history.”

Atleti president Enrique Cerezo has also paid tribute to Saul, who had initially joined Atleti 17 years ago.

“I thank him for his more than 15 years defending our shirt from our academy to the first team. He arrived as a young promise to our youth academy and after more than 400 games, assists, goals and titles he is already part of our history and one of our legends. Good luck for him and his family in this new stage and for all his personal and professional projects in the future. This will always be your home.”

Saul has now joined his new club

Upon leaving Atleti, Saul has now joined Brazilian giants Flamengo. He had been very close to making the switch to Trabzonspor, but earlier in the week, it emerged that a move to Türkiye had broken down. Instead, he will continue his career in South America.