Manchester United are looking to add real quality to the team, after a poor 2023/24
(Image credit: Getty Images)
Manchester United will look to add proven talent to their squad in the transfer window, as a former Golden Boy winner is the latest player to be linked with a move to Old Trafford.
Created in 2003, Rafael van der Vaart won the first-ever Golden Boy award. Since then, numerous talents have received the accolade, such as Erling Haaland, Kylian Mbappe and, most recently, Jude Bellingham.
There's another recipient that Manchester United have got their eyes on this January, though, as the Red Devils line up a groundbreaking deal for the talented star.
Bellingham most recently won the Golden Boy (Image credit: Marco Alpozzi)
According to Sky Sports Germany, Manchester United are lining up a move for Matthijs De Ligt, with the Dutchman having fallen out of favour at Bayern Munich.
Since arriving from Juventus on a five-year deal in 2022 for £68m, De Ligt enjoyed a successful first season in which he started 27 Bundesliga games. This term, Thomas Tuchel has preferred the partnership of Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-jae, though, forcing De Ligt down the pecking order. Eric Dier has recently arrived in Bavaria, too, adding even more competition at centre-back.
A move to Manchester United, therefore, looks possible, especially when considering that De Ligt enjoyed the best form of his career under Erik ten Hag at Ajax, where he won the 2018 Golden Boy award for his performances at centre-back as a teenager.
De Ligt has fallen out of favour at Bayern (Image credit: Getty Images)
Still only 24, De Ligt still has plenty of potential to develop into the world class defender his Golden Boy accolade suggested he would. Any move is likely to come in the summer, however, with financial implications for Manchester United pushing the deal back six months.
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Kim Min-jae is at the Asian Cup with South Korea, too, meaning De Ligt will have more opportunities in the Bayern first team over the next month or so at least.
Ryan is a staff writer for FourFourTwo, joining the team full-time in October 2022. He first joined Future in December 2020, working across FourFourTwo, Golf Monthly, Rugby World and Advnture's websites, before eventually earning himself a position with FourFourTwo permanently. After graduating from Cardiff University with a degree in Journalism and Communications, Ryan earned a NCTJ qualification to further develop as a writer while a Trainee News Writer at Future.
