Leny Yoro reportedly came to a ‘verbal agreement’ with Manchester United over a future move to Real Madrid when he signed for the Red Devils this summer.
Yoro joined the Red Devils from Lille for £52m despite interest from Madrid, with the La Liga giants supposedly unwilling to meet the French side’s asking price.
Liverpool and Paris Saint-Germain had by that point already pulled out of negotiations for the centre-back having got wind of the mutual interest between Yoro and Madrid, only for United to swoop in what was seen as quite the transfer coup – the first genuine one for United for a very long time indeed.
But a later report suggested the teenager had little choice in the matter.
It was claimed that Madrid used ‘the same formula’ they used successfully to sign Jude Bellingham and Aurelien Tchouameni, a ‘negotiation without haste’ in the knowledge (or false hope in this case) that the player would continue to push for the move.
The report claims the tactic didn’t work on this occasion because a) ‘Leny Yoro has been seduced by the powerful economic offer that United has put on the table in the form of a salary, much higher than that of Real Madrid’ and b) ‘he has not been able to withstand the very intense pressure exerted on him by Lille’.
It’s claimed Lille ‘even threatened the player with having a year without playing if he did not accept the English offer’.
Fair to say he would have preferred a move to Madrid and a fresh report in Spain claims he and his representatives got United to agree to a future move to the La Liga giants before he signed his contract at Old Trafford. The report states:
"Real Madrid has reached, not officially, but through some intermediaries, that Leny Yoro has a verbal agreement with Manchester United, something that is not signed, but consensual in word of mouth, for which the French player will be able to sign for the merengue team within two seasons."
"This possibility could be realized if the white club is interested in him again and the soccer player is not happy in Manchester, as long as a price similar to the one the English have paid now, about 50-55 million euros is paid."
Yoro revealed when he joined United that club legend Rio Ferdinand played a key role in persuading him.
"This is Rio Ferdinand, this is a legend in Man United, so for me this is an honour. This is a big defender, a legend, so yeah, big honour for me," said Yoro.
"It was like two weeks ago. He called me, so first of all I was really impressed to speak with him and yeah , we spoke like 10 minutes about Man United, so he helped me a lot to make my choice. So yeah, it was really an honour to speak with him."
"Yeah, he spoke to me about the club, and [that] this is a historic club with a big story, and if I go there I need to fight for the club, to be ready, because this is the biggest club in the world. So, yeah, for me it was really good to speak about this."
Yoro is currently out of action having picked up an injury in pre-season and is expected to be out until at least the start of November.