Manchester United surprised a lot of people this summer when they successfully signed Leny Yoro, the most coveted central defender on the transfer market, ahead of serious interest from Real Madrid.
In fact, many saw Real Madrid as a guaranteed landing spot for Yoro with how heavily Juni Calafat was pushing for the Lille star, as Real viewed him as a generational talent and began to prioritize him over another player with one year left on his contract, Alphonso Davies.
Instead, Manchester United were willing to spend 60 million euros on Yoro right up front in the summer market, whereas Real Madrid wanted Yoro at a steeply discounted price, hoping the player would hold out for another year in order to join them for free in 2025.
Lille weren’t about to let that happen, reportedly even threatening to bench the teenage defender if he decided to stay to run down his contract and leave to Real Madrid for free.
After using the background politics and their checkbook to sign Yoro, Manchester United are now turning to the other defensive star wanted by Real Madrid, Bayern Munich left back Davies.
According to a report from Sky Sports Germany’s Florian Plettenberg, Manchester United are developing “more concrete” interest in the 23-year-old fullback, who has been one of the best in the world in his position since the 2019/20 season when he won the treble with Bayern.
After drawing criticism from the organization for a mediocre 2023/24 season with accusations that he was sandbagging to run down his contract for Real Madrid, Davies has been excellent to start the 2024/25 campaign in a new system under Vincent Kompany.
Manchester United have a major interest in signing a left back, because their best options are always injured. Luke Shaw and Tyrell Malacia are still working their way back from injuries, and while Diogo Dalot has acquitted himself well as an inverted left back, Man United would do well to sign a top option.
With one year left on his deal and only loose speculation that he could re-sign with Bayern, Davies could be an exceptional market opportunity for Manchester United, especially with the Real Madrid transfer rumors cooling significantly.
The managing editor of The Trivela Effect, Kevin has 15 years of experience in digital media. He covered Real Madrid from 2019-2022 for The Real Champs as a site manager. His work has been featured in ESPN, Bleacher Report, Yahoo! Sports, NBC Sports, and other major outlets. You can contact him at the site’s official Twitter handle @TrivelaEffect or via the site’s official email thetrivelaeffect@gmail.com.