Manchester United dispatched scouts to watch a promising wonderkid in action
Manchester United boss Erik ten Hag(Image credit: Getty Images)
Manchester United’s INEOS regime have just completed their first transfer window as the club look to undergo a rebuilding process following last season’s eighth-placed Premier League finish.
The club bought in five new faces over the summer, spending almost £200million on Leny Yoro, Joshua Zirkzee, Matthijs de Ligt, Noussair Mazraoui and Manuel Ugarte, all of whom will be expected to make a first-team impact this season.
Another strand of this new transfer policy is to avoid the expensive misfires that have dogged the club in recent years, with an emphasis on securing the best young talent available.
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The latest young player reported to be on the Red Devils’ radar is 20-year-old Turkish defender Ali Sahin Yilmaz, with Milliyet claiming that the club dispatched scouts to watch him in action for Turkey’s under-20s side when they took on England on Friday.
Yilmaz, who is on Turkish Super Lig side Trabzonspor’s books, is said to have impressed the Old Trafford delegates with his performance at centre-back in the 1-1 draw in Istanbul.
The report adds that there is no indication as to whether or not Manchester United will make a move at this stage, but after a positive scouting report, he appears to be on the club’s watchlist.
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Eighteen-year-old Leny Yoro was signed earlier this summer (Image credit: Alamy)
Yılmaz, who is valued at €50,000 by Transfermarkt is yet to make his senior debut for Trabzonspor, but has been promoted to the first-team squad and was on their bench for the club’s last game, a goalless draw against Eyupspor.
The player is contracted until 2027 after putting pen to paper on a new deal earlier this summer and in FourFourTwo’s opinion, Manchester United are doing the right thing by casting their scouting net across Europe and monitoring players of Yilmaz’s potential.
For more than a decade Joe Mewis has worked in football journalism as a reporter and editor, with stints at Mirror Football and LeedsLive among others. He is the author of four football history books that include times on Leeds United and the England national team.
