Real Madrid beat Barcelona to Ceballos, says Real Betis president

Real Betis president Angel Haro has confirmed Dani Ceballos has turned down a new contract at the club and agreed to join Real Madrid this summer.

Ceballos has become the most in-demand youngster off the back of his performances with Spain at the U21 European Championships this summer.

The 20-year-old still has three years left to run on his existing Betis deal but he has been heavily linked with a move to Madrid and Barcelona since being named best player at U21 Euro 2017.

However, Haro has now confirmed that Ceballos, who has a €15m (£13.3m) release clause, has turned down the chance to continue his development at Betis and join the La Liga champions.

“Ceballos has rejected the offer of renewal of Beits,” Football Espana quote Haro as saying at a press conference on Monday.

“From what we understand, Real Madrid have reached an agreement for the player to complete his transfer.

“We made a good offer to the player but when a team come in and pay the release clause or more, you can do nothing.

“We will know more in the coming hours but the situation is now out of our hands.”

It now means that Madrid have been successful in signing three Barcelona targets this summer, following the arrivals of Brazilian teenager Vinicius Junior from Flamengo and Theo Hernandez from Atletico Madrid.

In the last two seasons in Europe’s top five leagues only Adama Traore (136) has completed more dribbles of all Spanish players than Ceballos (133).

For more stats on Dani Ceballos, click here to visit his WhoScored player page