David Alaba worked the system to get where he wanted to be.
“The two transfers that drew all the oxygen from the summer of 2021 were both monuments to the past. Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo have dominated their sport for a generation. That they are both, now, approaching their autumns did not matter; as soon as the chance to to sign them arose, neither Paris St.-Germain nor Manchester United paused for thought. Any doubt at all about what they might do, how they might fit, was assuaged by what they had done. …”
NY Times