Manchester United may have been handed a boost in their long pursuit of Randal Kolo Muani, with his agents pushing for him to join the club he chooses rather than the ‘highest bidder’.
That’s according to SportBILD, who say the highly sought after Frenchman will be deciding his future at the beginning of June.
The newspaper explains that the battle for Kolo Muani’s future ‘is heating up’, with several top clubs interested in him after his performances this season.
The Eintracht Frankfurt youngster is one of the revelations of the season after scoring 22 goals and registering 16 assists in 44 games in all competitions so far.
Manchester United are one of the sides who ‘have him on their list’ and have been linked for months, with a new striker at the top of Erik ten Hag’s wish list this summer.
Numerous reports have credited them with an interest, with it claimed in April that Manchester United had moved early to try and sign the striker ahead of the competition.
That was followed by a claim at the beginning of this month that they were the side ‘pushing the most’ to secure his signature, more than the likes of Bayern Munich and Chelsea.
SportBILD now provide the latest update on his future, explaining that Kolo Muani will only be making a decision after Eintracht’s cup final against Leipzig on June 3rd. Only then will he sit down with his family and advisors to discuss the situation.
The situation could even be delayed until June 19th, after France’s European Championship qualifiers, by which point big questions will have been answered.
One of those is who will be the new owners at Manchester United, with Sheikh Jassim and Sir Jim Ratcliffe still competing to take over from the Glazers.
That’s something that will be key for Kolo Muani to consider as he plans his future, although it is ‘extremely unlikely’ he will be remaining at Frankfurt, who want a fee well over €100m and will refuse players being included in the deal because they need to pay 10% to his former advisors.
Whether United could match their demands is up for debate, and would surely be determined by the new owners, but one factor in their favour is that Kolo Muani and his agents are counting on him being allowed to join his ‘preferred club’ even if they are not the highest bidder.
That means they stand a chance if they can convince the player, although that seems dependent on who wins the battle to be the new owners at Old Trafford.
