Manchester United have reportedly made an offer for the Al-Shorta SC midfielder Mohanad Ali.
The bid has been confirmed by club president Wahab Al-Taei, with his quotes doing the rounds in the Iraqi media and beyond in recent days.
“Manchester United have made an offer for Mohanad Ali, as have Juventus, Benfica and Galatasaray among others”, said Wahab Al-Taei (via Soccer Iraq on Twitter).
“But he refuses European offers for personal and family reasons, preferring Al-Ain. We’re trying to convince him to go to Europe.”
This morning, the Portuguese press also covered these quotes, and were caught by surprise, as they had never seen Benfica getting linked to the player before. The same goes for the Italian media and Juventus.
Muhanad Ali is a 18-year-old striker who’s already played a few matches for the Iraqi national team. For Al-Shorta, he has scored 17 league goals in the 2017-18 season and a further 12 in the current one. Transfermarkt says his contract expires in the summer, but since they have very little data on the player, we can’t rely on that.
Of course, there’s every chance Wahab Al-Taei is talking up interest in his player to attract genuine offers.
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