Manchester United’s pursuit of LOSC Lille’s Leny Yoro this summer has been a rather brief, but intense one.
Whilst the 18-year-old was being scouted by the likes of Liverpool, PSG and Real Madrid, the Spanish champions, until recently, had been the only club to submit an offer for the young centre-back.
The stage looked set for Yoro to join Madrid, a move he was extremely keen on.
However, seemingly out of nowhere, United have strutted in, placed €50 million (£42 million) on the table as an initial offer and blown Madrid’s plan out of the water.
With United’s offer being ‘superior’ to Madrid’s, Lille accepted the bid and are obviously very keen to see Yoro move to Old Trafford having previously released a statement that he and striker Jonathan David were the only first team Lille players that the Ligue 1 side were happy to part ways with.
Now, the next steps for United come with negotiating terms with the defender in order to lure him away from the shinny temptation of Real Madrid and convince him of a Premier League move.
Whilst Madrid were initially still confident on signing Yoro, Lille are yet to receive a revised offer from Los Blancos, with the La Liga side actively looking at an alternative to the 18-year-old in one of their former players, Mario Gila, who’s been shining at Lazio.
Now, reports from French outlet Le Petit Lillois claim that Yoro and his representatives have “reacted” to United’s intense pursuit of the young star, saying they are all “touched” by the interest from the Premier League club, especially with the United bosses seeing him as part of the solution to rebuilding the club to its former success.
The Red Devils believe that their rebuild project being currently undertaken to return United to its former glory at the top of European and world football is a strong selling point to attract big players like Yoro to Old Trafford.
The report also commented that despite Yoro’s agent favouring Madrid at the moment, this favour may change if the LaLiga club don’t make moves for the centre-back soon.
One stumbling point in United’s plan however is that a recent report from L’Equipe has expressed that Yoro isn’t overly interested in playing in the Premier League. If this is the case, then United may have to really turn on the charm or open their wallet to convince the star of a Manchester move.
