Let us take you back to the January 2015 transfer window. Dayot Upamecano was at Valenciennes and it was reported in France that he was set to sign for Manchester United, with the deal being presented as pretty much done.
It didn’t happen, and at the beginning of the following February came the transfer post-mortem, which we covered at the time: ‘La Voix Du Nord reported that Manchester United and Valenciennes had agreed a price of €450k which had the potential to rise to €900k.
‘A couple of days after that France Football also confirmed a transfer nearly happened and was only held off by ‘administrative reasons’, and they even explained that Upamecano had been given the grand tour of Old Trafford and also Manchester United’s Carrington facilities. A transfer was beaten by time, but Valenciennes still knew they needed to sell.’
In May 2015, L’Equipe reported Manchester United had agreed a deal to sign Upamecano the following summer, with Valenciennes needing the money. But in July he instead joined RB Salzburg, before moving to RB Leipzig in January 2017.
Last week came claims from France that Manchester United are still keen on the 19 year old, and he’s spoken about it this weekend, making it clear he’d rather fancy the move at some stage.
Quoted by Telefoot, Upamecano explained: “When you’re young, you dream of Real Madrid, Barcelona, Manchester United… But to get there, you have to work. I’m very proud of myself, very happy. I must continue on this path. Afterwards, I have to aim higher. My preference for the moment is Leipzig. We’ll see after.”
And the price? €100m, report Telefoot. Rather more than the €900k Manchester United were said to have agreed with Valenciennes.
