De Sanctis swaps Udinese for Sevilla
Monday, July 9, 2007
Article summary
Udinese Calcio's Morgan De Sanctis has cancelled his contract to sign for Sevilla FC alongside Belgium Under-21 international Tom De Mul who joins from AFC Ajax.
Article body
Compensation due
Udinese announced De Sanctis had terminated his contract according to the FIFA rule which states that a player may cancel his deal with a club unilaterally after three years, or two if he is over the age of 28. According to the FIFA regulations, De Sanctis will be required to pay compensation to Udinese for the remainder of his contract, which ran until 2010, and would not have been allowed to sign for any other club in Italy.
Udinese pedigree
The 30-year-old De Sanctis, capped twice by Italy, played 194 Serie A games for Udinese after joining from Juventus in 1999. He will be presented to the press at the Ramón Sánchez-Pizjuán Stadium tomorrow after being announced as the UEFA Cup holders' first signing of the summer. They wasted little time in adding another, however, after securing Belgian Under-21 international midfielder De Mul on a five-year deal from AFC Ajax.
Prodigious talent
The 21-year-old was a regular at the Amsterdam ArenA last term, scoring four goals in 28 matches after returning from a season on loan at BV Vitesse. A prodigious talent, De Mul made his first-team debut for KFC Germinal Beerschot Antwerpen in January 2004 aged just 17 before joining Ajax. Sevilla will start their UEFA Champions League campaign in the third qualifying round after finishing third in Spain in 2006/07.
