Man United can hand Geovany Quenda early transfer gift after Ruben Amorim approval

Sporting CP winger Geovany Quenda is now being tracked by Manchester United, The Manchester Evening News understands, with one eye on future transfer windows.

The 17-year-old has impressed under inbound United head coach Ruben Amorim at Sporting and he started on the right side in Tuesday night's 4-1 thrashing of Manchester City in the Champions League.

Sources indicate that United have been following Quenda's progress since the start of the season. Amorim handed him his debut in August and he has played every game for Sporting so far this campaign.

ALSO READ: United tracking Sporting CP starlet Quenda

ALSO READ: United 25-man training squad now revealed

Quenda, who became the club's youngest ever league scorer in October to beat Cristiano Ronaldo's record, plays behind the attacking right winger in Amorim's system. In defence, he forms part of their back five before bombing forward when his swashbuckling team are on the ball.

Amorim hasn't even got his feet under the table at Old Trafford and the number of players rumoured to be joining him in Manchester is gradually increasing. Viktor Gyokeres' hat-trick against City only added further fuel to that fire linking him with a big-money move.

Quenda is a new name on the radar - and a concrete one at that - and the importance of that right winger role in Amorim's 3-4-3 system could make any move make perfect sense. Should United reunite the teenager with the 39-year-old, he will face competition from Noussair Mazraoui and Diogo Dalot as their current right-backs.

Following the summer arrivals of Joshua Zirkzee, Manuel Ugarte, Matthijs de Ligt, Mazraoui himself and Leny Yoro, the available shirt numbers for Quenda are quite limited. However, there are certain ones that could see him follow in the footsteps of some favourites among the Old Trafford faithful.

The No.13 shirt has been vacant since Lee Grant's departure in 2022. Ji-sung Park wore the number on his back for seven years, but it has largely been used by goalkeepers dating back to Chris Turner in the 1980s.

Raphael Varane's exit in the summer means the No.19 is still unassigned. Marcus Rashford wore that jersey for two seasons after he burst on to the scene, as did fellow academy strikers James Wilson and Danny Welbeck.

After Manuel Ugarte took No.25, numbers 26 to 34 are available. Quenda's current number at Sporting is No.57 but Jack Fletcher has had that number assigned to him for his recent substitute appearances.