Manchester United agree £52m fee with Lille for defender Leny Yoro

Manchester United have had a €62m (£52m) offer for Leny Yoro accepted by Lille and the defender must decide whether to accept the move, with Real Madrid also interested. United are negotiating personal terms with his representatives.

United’s deal is for an initial €50m plus €12m of add-ons. Madrid are thought to value the 18-year-old lower and may be minded to wait until next summer when he is due to be a free agent, so the Ligue 1 club’s preference is for Yoro to join United.

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Yoro is primarily a centre-back and made his debut for Lille in May 2022 at 16. He is the club’s second-youngest player.

He is the third centre-back United are pursuing, along with Everton’s Jarrad Branthwaite and Bayern Munich’s Matthijs de Ligt. Ideally, Erik ten Hag wants two of these as the manager seeks to upgrade his options, though to do this one or both of Victor Lindelöf and Harry Maguire may have to be sold.

United have raised finance via the sale of Willy Kambwala to Villarreal for a fee rising to €11.5m, Donny van de Beek to Girona in a deal that could rise to €9.1m and Álvaro Fernández to Benfica for £5m.

Bologna’s striker Joshua Zirkzee is set to become United’s first recruit of the window, for €42m, and Ten Hag retains an interest in Paris Saint-Germain’s defensive midfielder Manuel Ugarte.

The sale of Casemiro may have to occur to allow the purchase of Ugarte, who has a contract to 2028 and is valued at about €45m. A loan deal for the Uruguayan may also be an option.