Barcelona could scupper Manchester United’s plans to sign highly-rated Russian youngster Sergei Pinyaev in the near future.
That’s according to Sport-Express, who say the young midfielder ‘may soon’ sign a contract with Barcelona despite interest from elsewhere.
For those that don’t know, Pinyaev is arguably the hottest talent in Russian football, having been touted for a bright future since the age of 13.
At that point, he was making his debut for Russia’s Under 16s and has continued to progress up the ranks since, featuring for the Under 15s and then Under 17s at just fourteen years old.
Since his emergence three years ago, he has regularly been linked with a move to Manchester United, who have already had him at the club on trials on three separate occasions.
Unfortunately for the Red Devils, they are unable to sign him until he turns 18 next year, which was the case before Brexit, which won’t have helped in the slightest as well.
A further complication to that could be Barcelona, with Sport-Express reporting that they are close to securing a deal.
According to their information, he ‘may soon sign’ a deal at the Nou Camp, with the La Liga side planning to loan him back to Russia and FC Khimki in particular.
They confirm that Pinyaev has had trials at Manchester United before now, scoring five goals against Bury in a friendly in 2018 and returning in January 2019.
It now remains to be seen if they will try to work something out to beat Barcelona to the punch; otherwise, those trials and effort would be something of a waste of time, wouldn’t they?
