Manchester United’s £78m target to reject contract as Ten Hag eyes new Varane

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Leny Yoro is unlikely to sign a new contract at Lille as Premier League giants Manchester United throw their hat into the ring for the reportedly £78 million-rated Ligue 1 starlet.

It says a lot about the rapid rise in transfer fees over the last 15 years or so that a player dubbed the second coming of Raphael Varane in some quarters is allegedly valued at around £60 million more than Real Madrid paid to sign the World Cup-winning France international from Lens in 2011.

Make no mistake, Lille know what they’ve got in teen sensation Leny Yoro. And, after seeing the likes of Josko Gvardiol and Matthijs de Ligt move on for eye-watering fees in recent windows, Les Dogues are determined to ensure they eke every penny out of Yoro’s many suitors.

And that includes Manchester United, RMC Sport’s Fabrice Hawkins reporting that the Red Devils have expressed their interest alongside Bayern Munich, Real Madrid and Paris Saint-Germain.

Manchester United in Leny Yoro race

“PSG tried to reactivate the Leny Yoro deal but Lille wants to keep him this winter,” Hawkins writes on X. “Yoro has a proposal (for a one-year contract extension) from LOSC but the trend is not towards an extension.

“Bayern, Man United and Real Madrid inquired.”

Yoro, Hawkins adds, is now represented by Jorge Mendes’ Gestifute agency. The Portuguese super-agent has another United target in his stable in Benfica playmaker Joao Neves, though it’s tempting to wonder about the state of the relationship between Mendes and the Red Devils after that sorry Cristiano Ronaldo saga.

Lille wonderkid the best in Europe in one ara

Yoro only turned 18 in November but is already a regular at a Lille side who developed the likes of Eden Hazard, Raphael Leao and Victor Osimhen. Interestingly, Data Foot reports that Yoro’s 80 per cent success rate in defensive duels is the best not only in France but across the whole of European football.

Nice’s Jean-Clair Todibo, another with admirers at Old Trafford, comes in third.

So no wonder, with his towering frame and aerial prowess, comparisons with between Yoro and Varane have been pretty frequent.

“He could pass for someone fragile but he is a (phyiscal) monster,” a source familiar with Yoro’s rapid rise to prominence tells Le Parisien.

“When I saw Leny Yoro, he was a portrait of Raphael Varane. The same attitude, the same potential, the same maturity at the same age, the same size…”