Manchester, Jan 26 (IANS): Manchester City have completed the signing of Argentinian midfielder Claudio Echeverri from River Plate, the Premier League club said.

The 18-year-old has signed a contract until June 2028 but will remain at River before moving to the Etihad Stadium in January next year.

Echeverri has made six first-team appearances for River Plate, and was Argentina's captain at the U17 World Cup last November, where he scored a hat-trick as they beat Brazil 3-0 in the quarter-finals.

He finished the tournament with five goals, picking up the bronze ball as the tournament’s third top scorer, as Argentina finished fourth.

In total, Echeverri has made 23 appearances for Argentina’s Under-17s, scoring 13 times, while he has also trained with the senior national team.

Former City defender Martin Demichelis, who is the manager at El Monumental, gave him his debut in June 2023 where he claimed an assist in a 3-1 victory over Instituto Cordoba.

Echeverri will hope to follow in the footsteps of 2022 World Cup winner Julian Alvarez who moved to City from River in 2022 and becomes the latest in a long line of Argentinians to join the Club.