Real Madrid complete the signing of Mariano Diaz

Real Madrid have themselves a new striker... sort of

It's been confirmed that the European champions have re-signed Mariano Diaz from Lyon, just 14 months after he departed the Bernabeu for France. The Spanish giants have activated a buy-back option and will reportedly shell out just €22m for the 25-year-old as they still owned 35% of the player's rights. Mariano, a former Dominican international, joined Lyon for €8m last summer. He went on to score 20 goals in 43 appearances for the Ligue 1 club. News of his return to Madrid follows comments from Sevilla president, Jose Castro, who had claimed a deal had been agreed to take Mariano to the Ramón Sánchez Pizjuán. Real's decision to intervene appears to have put an end to Sevilla's interest in the player. Real agreed to let Cristiano Ronaldo leave the club earlier this summer, his move to Juventus bringing to a close a record-breaking nine-year stint. Although it was expected that Florentino Perez would look to replace Ronaldo with either Neymar or Kylian Mbappe from Paris Saint-Germain, Real swiftly rejected media claims that they had made official approaches for the players. Prior to their move for Mariano, Real were also linked with a surprise move for former Liverpool striker Iago Aspas.