Man United sign teenage defender for $76M

“Signing for a club with the stature and ambition of Manchester United so early in my career is an incredible honor,” Yoro told The Athletic.

“I know about the history of young players at Manchester United and feel it can be the perfect place to reach my potential and achieve my ambitions, together with my new team-mates. I cannot wait to get started.”

Yoro has played 60 matches for French club Lille in all competitions, scoring three goals. The 1.9 m tall midfielder, along with Man Utd’s Kobbie Mainoo and Alejandro Garnacho, are among the top contenders to win the 2024 Golden Boy award for excellent young player.

“Leny is one of the most exciting young defenders in world football. He possesses every attribute needed to develop into a top-class center-back,” Man United’s new sporting director Dan Ashworth said, as cited by The Athletic.

According to The Athletic, Lille are guaranteed to receive $67 million, and the remaining $9 million will be paid depending on Yoro’s achievements with the new club.

He will become the fourth most expensive teenage player in history, after Kylian Mbappe ($201 million), Joao Felix ($141 million) and Matthijs de Ligt ($95 million), also the most expensive transfer so far in the summer of 2024.

Yoro is a deep-lying center-back, as he often drops deep to support the defense, so his duel stats may not be high. Real Madrid’s recruitment team leader, Juni Calafat, has considered Yoro a “tremendous talent” since last year and wanted to wait for him to finish his contract with Lille in the summer of 2025 and sign him for free.

Yoro also wanted to move to Madrid, but Man Utd stepped in and paid a large amount of transfer fee to Lille and the French club convinced the 18-year-old to move to England, as Madrid were not willing to pay such an amount of money.

Man Utd currently have four other center-backs on the team: Harry Maguire, Lisandro Martinez, Victor Lindelof and Jonny Evans, after young player Willy Kambwala moved to Villarreal for $12.5 million. Ashworth still wants to sign Matthijs de Ligt or Jarrad Branthwaite, but that can only happen if they sell Maguire or Lindelof.

Yoro is the second deal of conglomerate INEOS at Man Utd, after the club signed Dutch forward Joshua Zirkzee for $46 million from Bologna. The team also sold forward Mason Greenwood to Marseille for $34 million.