The attacking midfielder joins City on a four-and-a-half-year contract for a fee of around £12.5m plus add-ons.

The deal will see Echeverri rejoin River Plate on loan for the rest of the calendar year.

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The Argentinian transfer window opened on Wednesday and City wasted no time in completing the signing.

The teenager, who turned 18 earlier this month, has already made six senior appearances for the Buenos Aries club, which is managed by former City defender Martin Demichelis, and captained Argentina to the semi-finals of the Under-17
World Cup in November and December last year.

Echeverri, who has trained with the senior national team, scored a hat-trick in a 3-0 quarter-final victory over Brazil, but saw his side lose out on penalties to Germany in the last four.

Echeverri follows in the footsteps of 2022 World Cup winner Julian Alvarez, who moved to City from River in 2022 and becomes the latest in a long line of Argentinians to join the Club.

"Everyone at Manchester City is looking forward to welcoming Claudio to the Club and we wish him the best of luck in his remaining time with River," a statement from the Premier League champions concluded.

'Same journey as Alvarez but with a different route map'

South American football expert Tim Vickery, speaking earlier this month, to Sky Sports:

"Echeverri is taking a similar path as Julian Alvarez - River Plate and Argentina to Manchester City and England - but with significant differences. Alvarez went at the age of 22 as a consolidated Argentina international and as the best player in Argentine football.

"Echeverri has only just turned 18 and we've hardly seen him in senior Argentine football. Just six games with most of those off the substitutes' bench. It's the same journey but with a very different route map.

The promise is huge. Forget the new Lionel Messi thing - not least because Echeverri is right footed - but he's very sharp, operates as a No 10 or on the shoulder of the last defender.

"Real pace and changes of pace, changes of rhythm, real knowledge of where to hurt the opposition and attacking space. But he's still very raw so certainly one for the long term."

Follow the January transfer window

The winter transfer window is now open and will close at 11pm in England and midnight in Scotland on Thursday 1 February, 2024.

To ensure harmonisation with the major leagues in Europe, the closing dates were set following discussions with the EFL, DFL, Serie A, LaLiga, and LFP, who will all close their summer and winter windows on 1 September and 1 February respectively

Keep up to date with all the latest transfer news and rumours in our dedicated Transfer Centre blog on Sky Sports' digital platforms, while you can also catch up with the ins, outs and analysis on Sky Sports News, including daily transfer shows, and listen to our Transfer Talk podcast.