Real Madrid said on Thursday they had bought highly-rated Spain defender Sergio Ramos out of his contract with Sevilla for 27 millions d'euros. Ramos, 19, who is to join on an eight-year contract, is the first Spaniard to arrive since president Florentino Perez took over in 2000.
He is the sixth most expensive signing in the club's history - only Zinedine Zidane, Luis Figo, Ronaldo, David Beckham and Nicolas Anelka cost more. The Ramos deal brings Real's summer spending on new players to 90 million euros.
Ramos follows in the footsteps of Brazilian forward Julio Baptista, who moved to Real for 24 million euros from Sevilla at the start of August.
Real paid Brazilian side Santos another 24 million euros on Brazilian striker Robinho and invested 15 million on Uruguayan defender Pablo Garcia and midfielder Carlos Diogo.
Sevilla replaced Ramos by signing Serbia and Montenegro defender Ivica Dragutinovic on a three-year deal from Belgian side Standard Liege.