Atheltic Bilbao have agreed a deal to sign Real Valladolid striker Aritz Aduriz.
Athletic Bilbao have agreed a deal to sign Real Valladolid striker Aritz Aduriz.The 24-year-old actually came through the youth ranks at Athletic before leaving in the summer 2003 to secure regular first-team football.
However, the Basque outfit have now agreed to pay around ‚é¼2.8 million (£2 million) to take the hit-man back to San Mames and the deal will go through when the transfer window reopens in January.
Aduriz has committed himself to a contract that runs until 2011, with the option to extend it further, and becomes Athletic boss Javier Clemente's first signing since returning to the club.
The hit-man broke into the first-team squad at Athletic in the 2000-01 campaign and stayed until the summer of 2003 when he agreed a season-long loan to Burgos.
After notching 16 goals in his time there, Valladolid moved to sign him on a permanent basis the following summer and in 18 months at the Estadio Jose Zorrilla he managed a further 16 goals.
Clemente is keen to strengthen his squad in January with his team sat third bottom in La Primera and the capture of Aduriz should provide more firepower to an outfit who have mustered only 14 goals in 15 league games this term.
However, the Basque club are restricted by their transfer policy which dictates they may only buy players from the Basque region.
