Man Utd ‘big favourites’ to sign €50m top target but signing ‘depends on’ one major factor
According to reports, Man Utd are the “big favourites” to sign South Korea defender Kim Min-jae from Serie A outfit Napoli this summer.
Min-jae only joined Napoli last summer but he is on track to earn himself a major move to the Premier League.
The defender joined Napoli for around £15m from Fenerbache and he has established himself as one of the best defenders in Serie A this season.
The 26-year-old was linked with Tottenham Hotspur prior to this move to Napoli and now Man Utd have joined the race to sign the highly-rated defender.
The Red Devils are in the market for a new centre-back ahead of this summer. This is with Harry Maguire and Victor Lindelof being linked with a move elsewhere.
Lisandro Martinez and Raphael Varane have been in stunning form this season but they have both missed games due to injury and Erik ten Hag wants more quality options in that area of the pitch.
Fabrizio Romano thinks Man Utd are ready to sign Min-jae but this signing “depends on the new owners first of all”.
“Manchester United are the big favourites to sign Kim Min-jae by paying the release clause,” Romano claimed on The Here We Go Podcast.
“This is the theory of Manchester United but they have not made any concrete bid or concrete step yet because it depends on the new owners first of all and also Napoli, because Napoli are offering him the chance to stay with a long-term contract and higher release clause.
“But, Manchester United are there. The clause is not ready now. The clause is only valid in the first days of July and it is a bit less than 50 million euros [£43.4million].
“Phil Jones will leave on a free transfer. [Axel] Tuanzebe will leave on a free transfer. [Alex] Telles and [Eric] Bailly will be on the market.”
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Min-jae’s agent insisted earlier this week that a “deal has not been done with Man Utd”.
“It is not true that a deal has been done with Manchester United,” the representative told Star News Korea. “Kim is concentrated on seeing out the season, besides which we still don’t know which English clubs will qualify for the Champions League next term.
“There is no rush for the future. United were interested in him when he was still in China, but we only ever chatted about that.
“I repeat, there has been no concrete contact. In any case he has to enrol for military service in June.”
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