Free agent on the move
This article has been updated after Daley Blind’s transfer to Bayern was made official.
Bayern Munich have announced the signing of Netherlands international Daley Blind as the club’s first transfer of the January transfer window. The 32-year-old defender has agreed to make the move to the Bundesliga giants on a short-term deal until the end of the season, Transfermarkt can confirm. Having left Ajax at the start of the year, Blind makes the move to Munich as a free agent with a market value of €6 million.
“I can hardly wait to play here,” Blind said in a statement released by Bayern. “We’ve got the most important part of the season coming up, where it’s about titles – and a club like Bayern can win every trophy. The hunger for titles here at the club was key in my decision. I hope I can bring my experience to help the team. I’ll give everything for Bayern Munich.”
Blind departs Dutch football following his second stint at Ajax, racking up an impressive tally for the club that trained him as a youth player. Over the course of his career in Amsterdam, Blind featured in 333 games across all competitions for Ajax and won seven league titles, as well as two Dutch Cups. In between his two stints at Ajax, Blind spent five years at Manchester United, where he made 141 appearances for the Premier League side.
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The senior defender opted to depart his hometown club towards the end of 2022, confirming in an open letter to fans of the club in December that he was disappointed at the manner in which he was forced to leave. “With pain in my heart and tears in my eyes, I have to say goodbye to you and the club,” wrote Blind a few hours after his departure from the Dutch record champions. “I always gave everything for you and for our club. So there is no club I would have preferred to play for than Ajax.” Reports at the time suggested that the senior player had fallen out with new manager Alfred Schreuder, following just two starts in the Eredivisie in the last three months of the year.
Whether Blind will be able to pick up game time at Bayern remains to be seen, but his move to the Bundesliga club will undoubtedly be in no small part due to the serious injury to central defender Lucas Hernandez at the 2022 World Cup. As such, the Munich club will perhaps look to Blind to fill in as a ball-playing central defender or perhaps even cover for Alphonso Davies at left-back for the remainder of the season.
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