Leny Yoro has admitted that he could have been playing in a more advanced attacking position on the pitch if the Manchester United defender had it his way.
The 20-year-old Frenchman has made 63 appearances for the Red Devils’ senior team since he was signed from French side Lille in 2024 for an initial £52.18m fee.
Leny Yoro has faced tough competition from the likes of Lisandro Martinez, Harry Maguire and Matthijs de Ligt for a place in the Manchester United starting XI.
However, the former Lille defender has been a key pick for Michael Carrick in recent months amid the absence of different defenders due to suspensions and injuries.
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Man Utd star Leny Yoro on the striker and winger roles that were on his radar when he was emerging as a defender
The early part of Leny Yoro’s football career had been spent in France before the Manchester United defender arrived in England when he was only 18 years old.
Yoro had climbed through the ranks of the Lille youth academy before he broke into the first team and appeared on the radar of different high-profile European teams.
The Man Utd centre-back was attracting interest from Paris Saint-Germain in France, Real Madrid in Spain and Liverpool in England while he was at Ligue 1 outfit Lille.
Man Utd star Yoro has explained that his height made him incredibly desirable to become a defender when he was only a youth player.
However, the former Real Madrid and PSG target was keen to play in a more advanced attacking position on the pitch, whether it was as a striker or as a winger.
“I was really tall when I was young,” he told the club media, as per Manchester United’s official website.
“So, for them [Yoro’s youth teams] it was better for me to play at the back. I tried to fight to play winger and striker for a long time, but they just told me to go back.”
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Would Leny Yoro be playing for Man Utd now if he were a winger, despite being developed as a defender at Lille?
Yoro has accepted that he was more suited to playing as a defender rather than a striker or as a winger after impressing at times during his Old Trafford spell.
The Man Utd defender admitted that his stunning move to the Premier League club would not likely have happened if he had become a winger in his playing career.
“I don’t think [if] I was [a] winger, I would be here [at United], so it was good for me to play at centre-back,” he added.
Yoro has made 30 appearances across all competitions for Man Utd in the 2025-26 campaign and has registered two assists for the Red Devils so far.
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