Ajax’s Donny van de Beek is ready to snub Barcelona to join Man United, according to reports from Spain.
Quoting Sky Sports, Fichajes.com reports that despite being at the top of the Blaugrana’s transfer shopping list, the Dutchman has his heart set on a Premier League move and that United are the team leading the chase.
The multifaceted central midfielder scored 10 goals and provided 11 assists in 37 games across all competitions last season. Whilst primarily an attacking midfielder, he can also play in the holding role and from box-to-box.
Barcelona’s new coach Ronald Koeman knows the player well, having coached him for the Netherlands national side, for whom the 23-year-old has nine full caps.
‘In that sense, one of the players who has completely dazzled Koeman is Donny van de Beek, who seems to have made the decision to leave Ajax Amsterdam,’ Fichajes reports.
‘However, Sky Sports comments that the Netherlands international would prefer to try his luck away from Barcelona.
‘In fact, the cited source specifies that his wish would be to go to the Premier League, a competition in which he has had enormous interest from Manchester United.
‘Likewise, Real Madrid positioned themselves several months ago as an ideal option for Van de Beek, although his desire would be to go to the United Kingdom rather than to our league.’
Ajax’s head coach Erik Ten Hag recently confirmed that the club would allow Van de Beek to leave the club this summer and that his asking price had been reduced to facilitate the transfer.
This brings the price tag down to below £50 million, with The Times having claimed in June that United were preparing a £36 million bid.
