In the biggest football sale in the region this season, Japanese attacker Ritsu Doan is moving from FC Groningen to PSV Eindhoven for a reported 10 million euros.
Rumours had been circulating about the sale for weeks, and now it has been made official: Ritsu Doan is set to sign a multi-year contract with PSV. FC Groningen received 7.5 million euros for the transfer, and the club is set to receive an additional 2.5 million and a percentage for possible resale at a later date.
The multi-million-euro price tag for the transfer makes the 21-year-old Japanese player the most expensive player in the club’s history, tied with Marcus Berg, who was sold to Hamburger SV in 2009.
On the FC Groningen website, sports director Mark-Jan Fledderus wrote, “Without being able to comment on the details, we can state that we are satisfied with the final result. Doan’s transfer to PSV is one of the largest in the club’s history, and we can be proud of that. Assuming that PSV and Ritsu will finalise the transfer in the coming days, we wish him every success in the rest of his career. “
Doan himself was reportedly eager to move on, having previously let a transfer to CSKA Moscow pass him by, which may explain his less impressive performance in the second half of the previous season.
Doan came to Groningen in the summer of 2017 and played 66 official matches for FC Groningen, in which he scored 16 goals and was good for 7 assists. Doan played 15 A international games for Japan so far, in which he scored three goals.
Whether FC Groningen is going to get a replacement for the incoming transfer money remains to be seen. The transfer window is still open until Monday, September 2.
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