After a six-year spell at Old Trafford, filled with plenty of highs and lows, winger Adnan Januzaj has left Manchester United for Real Sociedad in a deal reportedly worth £9.8million.
The Belgian has signed a five-year-contract at the Anoeta Stadium.
A statement from United read; "Adnan Januzaj has completed a transfer to Real Sociedad, Everybody at Manchester United wishes Adnan well for the next chapter of his career."
Januzaj had a mixed spell at Old Trafford
After breaking onto the scene as a teenager in 2013, scoring twice on his Premier League debut at the Stadium of Light, many football fans thought that the Belgian was to be the next big thing coming through the United academy. Januzaj featured 27 times in David Moyes' one and only season at the Theatre of Dreams, one of the few highlights of what proved to be a disastrous season for the club.
Despite this, as a new era began at Old Trafford, so did the downfall of Januzaj. Throughout the course of the 2014/15 Premier League season, the Belgian featured just 18 times in the league under new boss Louis van Gaal, not scoring or getting any assists during this time, which therefore lead to him being loaned out to German giants Borussia Dortmund, in an attempt to revive his career through gaining experience at another big club.
Januzaj spent six unsuccessful months in the Bundesliga, which therefore resulted in him being re-called to United in January of 2016, before then going on to have another unsuccessful spell as Sunderland under Jose Mourinho the following season, which inevitably has resulted in the United boss now making the decision to sell the 22-year-old.
Sociedad the right fit?
In signing for Real Sociedad, Adnan Januzaj is joining a club that is competing year-in-year-out with the likes of Athletic Bilbao, Villarreal and Sevilla for European football, and in the upcoming season they will be playing in the Europa League, meaning that he is likely to get game time due to the fact a big squad is needed with a huge amounts of games being played, which is exactly what Januzaj needs to prove himself.
A player that can be compared to Januzaj is former Arsenal man Carlos Vela, who also had a fairly unsuccessful spell in the Premier League with Arsenal before making a move to Sociedad, and is now thriving on their right-wing in La Liga. Januzaj will be hoping there is a similar outcome for him as there was for Vela, as he looks for a fresh-start in Spain.