Man Utd youngster explains club legend’s role in £52m Old Trafford transfer

Manchester United newcomer Leny Yoro has revealed that Rio Ferdinand helped convince him to join the Premier League club this summer.

Real Madrid had an interest in signing the 18-year-old but the Red Devils made an attractive offer and sealed a £52 million transfer.

The youngster was impressive on his non-competitive debut against Rangers last week at the Murrayfield Stadium in United’s first pre-season friendly.

He posted some excellent stats, helping his team to a comfortable 2-0 victory. The Frenchman won 100 percent of his tackles and duels, while his pass accuracy was 92 percent.

Now, in his first interview with the club, Yoro has revealed Rio Ferdinand played a big role in convincing him to move to Old Trafford.

“It was like two weeks ago [when I first spoke to Rio],” Yoro told Manutd.com. “He called me. First of all, I was really impressed to speak with him and, yeah, we spoke like 10 minutes about Man Utd.

“He helped me a lot to make my choice. It was really an honour to speak with him. 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. For me, it was really good to speak about this.”

Manchester United endured a largely underwhelming 2023-24 campaign as they finished a lowly eighth in the Premier League.

A poor defence was one of their biggest issues as they conceded an incredible 58 league goals.

Lisandro Martinez remained sidelined for the majority of the campaign and in his absence, the team really struggled.

Erik ten Hag’s side have mainly focused on improving the defence during the ongoing summer transfer window.

They allowed Raphael Varane to leave on a free transfer and then brought in a younger, top-class defender in Leny Yoro.

The Red Devils are not done yet as they are also pursuing a deal for Juventus’ Matthijs de Ligt and have also been linked with Everton centre-back Jarrad Branthwaite.