Conor Gallagher will be registered as EU player at Atletico Madrid due to clever 'loophole'

Conor Gallagher will be registered as a European player at Atletico Madrid due to a clever 'loophole'.

On Wednesday Gallagher finally completed his move to Atletico Madrid from Chelsea, with the Spanish side paying about £33 million.

The transfer was set to go through last week, but was at risk of collapsing after Chelsea's move for Atletico striker Samu Omorodion fell through.

The deal was rescued when Chelsea agreed to sign Joao Felix from the Spanish giants for a fee in the region of £45m.

Gallagher is Atletico's fourth signing of the summer, following the arrivals of Julian Alvarez, Robin Le Normand and Alexander Sorloth at the Civitas Metropolitano.

La Liga rules stipulate that teams can only have three non-European Union players in their squads, causing fans to worry about how both Gallagher and Alvarez could be added to Diego Simeone's squad.

With neither Nahuel Molina or Samuel Lino holding EU passports, Atletico were left with only one non-EU space to fill.

Alvarez was not a problem, though, as the Argentinian striker holds an Italian passport and so can be classed as an EU citizen.

Since the United Kingdom's decision to leave the EU became effective in 2021, English players like Gallagher would ordinarily count as non-EU players.

However, Gallagher has Irish family on his father's side, meaning he is eligible for an Irish passport. With the Republic of Ireland a member of the EU, Gallagher will not occupy a non-EU spot in the squad.

It's a trick Real Madrid used when signing England star Jude Bellingham, with the mIdfielder requesting an Irish passport when he completed his move from Borussia Dortmund last summer.

In that case, despite signing players who play for England and Argentina, Atletico will be able to register another non-EU player before the end of the transfer window if they want to.