Atletico Madrid target Juan Manuel Sanabria

Atletico Madrid may be following the same formula that allowed the team to sign youngster Nicolás Schiappacasse: They are currently scouting a young Uruguayan who continues to stand out in his national youth teams and has been drawing the attention of some of the biggest clubs in Europe. In this case, the player in question is midfielder Juan Manuel Sanabría, according to Luis Aznar and Alberto Barbero in this article in Marca.com.

Sanabria, the captain of Uruguay’s U17 team, is a skillful midfielder who likes to play around the opponent’s penalty area and does not skimp in his efforts to defend. "El Maguito," as he is so called, can play in one of the two central positions in the middle of the park in a 4-4-2 system or in a slightly more advanced position in a 4-3-3 as used by Nacional, his current team.

You can enjoy some of his skills and get an idea on how the lad plays in the video below:

It is worth remembering that FIFA's ban on Atletico does not prevent los colchoneros from signing players, but rather registering them to play in LaLiga and in Europe. Therefore, if Atleti end up signing Sanabria, he would have to wait until next January to don the red and white.

Reports from Mundo Deportivo, a few months ago, suggested the interest of Barcelona, Chelsea and Manchester United in signing Sanabria. In addition, the youngster trained and played friendlies with Liverpool in 2014. However, now it seems that Atletico have taken a step, perhaps definitive, to sign one of the best young football talents in South America.