“I will finish my career either in Madrid, Manchester, or Lens. It’s certain that I won’t join another club. But Madrid seems complicated to me, we don’t usually come back there. The most likely today is that I end up in Manchester or Lens”. In an interview given to GQ in March 2023, Raphaël Varane, at the end of his contract at the end of June, made fairly clear remarks about the end of his career. Since then, new candidates have emerged, like Inter Miami, the American franchise where Lionel Messi, Sergio Busquets, Luis Suarez and Jordi Alba play in particular. If a departure from Old Trafford is therefore more relevant than ever, the Mancunian management is working hard to find a worthy successor.
In this context, Sky Sport Germany indicates that the last 8th in the Premier League would have set his sights on Matthijs de Ligt, currently at Bayern Munich and linked to the Bavarian club until June 2027. Great admirer of the Dutch defender, currently in Germany to play Euro 2024, after having already worked with the Batavian international (45 caps, 2 goals) for Ajax Amsterdam, Erik ten Hag would, in fact, like to offer a new challenge to the native of Leiderdorp. For this, the two parties will have to find common ground but an arrival in Manchester remains possible, moreover at a time when the Munich team has already planned reinforcements at its position.
Erik ten Hag is a fan of De Ligt
With the formalization of Hiroki Ito, arrived from Stuttgart, and an agreement in place with Jonathan Tah from Bayer Leverkusen, the team now led by Vincent Kompany could indeed agree to sell the 1m89 right-hander, estimated at 65 million euros. Author of two goals and an assist in 30 matches in all competitions last season, will the former Juventus Turin player agree to take on this new challenge? Difficult, for the moment, to say in view of the recent comments of the principal concerned. Asked about his future on the sidelines of the Netherlands’ entry into Euro 2024, the 24-year-old had, in fact, kicked in.
“You don’t understand Dutch, do you? No, I already said that now is not the time for me to think about it. We are now playing the Euro, which is very important for me and for the national team. That’s why I can’t say anything about this situation at the moment, but I was happy with my second season at Bayern. For now, I’m focusing on the Euros and then we’ll see what happens.”, admitted, in this capacity, the defender represented by Rafaela Pimenta. One thing is certain, before facing the Blues in the second match of Group D, the Dutchman already has a way out. It now remains to be seen whether this operation will materialize in the coming weeks…
