David De Gea’s shock wage demands revealed as his search for a new club continues

The goalkeeper left Manchester United in the summer of 2023 and is still without a team.

David De Gea remains without a new club more than a year after his departure from Manchester United – and specific figures about his wage demands have now become clear.

The 33-year-old goalkeeper spent more than a decade at United, having been signed by Sir Alex Ferguson from Atletico Madrid in 2011 for nearly £19m.

De Gea went on to make 545 appearances for the Old Trafford club across 12 seasons.

In that time the Spanish stopper won the Premier League, FA Cup, Carabao Cup twice and the UEFA Europa League as United’s spell as the dominant force in English football came to an end.

But De Gea’s United career ended with a defeat in the 2023 FA Cup final with a 2-1 loss at the hands of cross-town rivals Manchester City.

De Gea’s final Old Trafford contract paid the goalkeeper a weekly wage of £375,000 and it seemed there had been agreement over a pay cut, to £200,000 each week.

But the offer was subsequently withdrawn and De Gea ended up departing United to end a spell which lasted more than a decade.

Following De Gea’s departure, United signed Andre Onana from Inter Milan to become Erik ten Hag’s new number one goalkeeper for an initial £43.8m.

Many would have assumed that a goalkeeper of De Gea’s calibre would have found a new club fairly quickly last summer after he became a free agent.

However, more than a year after his departure from Old Trafford, De Gea remains without a team.

Since becoming a free agent, De Gea has trained at the ground of non-league side Altrincham to keep up his fitness, and has also donned United training kit despite no longer playing for the club.

Speculation has linked De Gea with offers from Newcastle United, Nottingham Forest, Real Betis and clubs in the Saudi Pro League, but none have materialised.

And it appears De Gea’s wage demands are the major stumbling block to any move coming to fruition.

TEAMtalk reports the Spanish goalkeeper is seeking a contract which pays an annual wage of between £4.2m and £5m, which would work out as between £80,000 and £96,000 every week.

Despite this being much less than the £375,000 deal he was on at United in his final spell there and fewer than half what he agreed in the contract offer he would have renewed, it appears the wage demands have not yet been at the level clubs would like to agree to for De Gea to join a new team.