Manchester United were set to make French forward Anthony Martial the most expensive teenager in world soccer after a chaotic day of transfer dealings at Old Trafford which also saw Javier Hernandez and Adnan Januzaj offloaded.
The French Football Federation (FFR) said on Monday that Martial, the 19-year-old AS Monaco player who has been compared to France great Thierry Henry, was granted permission to leave France’s national squad to sign a contract at United.
Reports in the French and English media said Martial could cost United £36 million (US$55.5 million), a hefty fee for a player who has started only 29 games and was just called up by France for the first time ahead of upcoming friendlies against Serbia and Portugal.
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Martial, who signed a new contract at Monaco this summer until 2019, would surpass Paris Saint-Germain’s Lucas Moura as the costliest teenager in the history of the game.
United’s overhaul under manager Louis van Gaal gathered pace with the sale of Mexico striker Javier Hernandez to Bayer 04 Leverkusen on a three-year deal, while attacking midfielder Adnan Januzaj was sent on loan to Borussia Dortmund for the season and backup goalkeeper Anders Lindegaard left for West Bromwich Albion.
The 20-time English champions are taking a gamble on Martial after scoring just three goals in their opening four matches of the Premier League season, raising doubts about the strength of their attacking options.
Wayne Rooney has been used by Van Gaal as a lone striker, but has not scored in the league since April 4. The only other striker in Van Gaal’s squad is youngster James Wilson.
For the second straight year, United are turning to Monaco to solve their striker shortage in the final hours of Europe’s summer transfer window.
Twelve months ago, it was Radamel Falcao. This time, it is Martial.
Martial can play as a winger or as a central striker and has played at all youth levels for France. He scored nine goals in 35 league matches last season and is widely regarded as one of the brightest young players in French soccer alongside Olympique Lyonnais’ Nabil Fekir.
With his speed, technical skills and penchant for cutting in from the left, Martial has many of the same attributes as Henry — France’s record goalscorer and a Premier League great from his time at Arsenal.
Martial joined Monaco from Lyon in 2013 for 5 million euros (US$5.6 million) and blossomed last season, relegating veteran Dimitar Berbatov to the bench toward the end of the campaign.
“He approached [France coach] Didier Deschamps for authorization to go to England to sign a contract with Manchester United there,” a FFR statement said about Martial. “In these exceptional circumstances, the coach accepted the request of the player.”
Martial was due to link up again with the France squad at its Clairfontaine base near Paris yesterday.
Meanwhile, United’s Spanish goalkeeper David de Gea was facing an uncertain future yesterday after his expected move to Real Madrid was apparently scuppered when the paperwork did not arrive at the Spanish league on time.
As the clock ticked toward the midnight local time deadline on Monday, media reports said Real and United had reached a deal for De Gea to return to La Liga, with Real’s Costa Rican goalkeeper Keylor Navas going the other way.
However, when La Liga declared the transfer window shut there was still no official confirmation and reports later said that although De Gea had signed his new contract, the relevant documents had not arrived in time for him to be registered.
FIFA rules state that players can only be registered during one of two annual transfer periods — the other is in January — with the exception being if their contract has expired before the end of a registration period.
Sports daily AS quoted unidentified Spanish league sources as saying the paperwork had not been delivered until 28 minutes past midnight, while rival paper Marca reported that Real had proof the paperwork arrived at one minute before midnight and were still expecting the transfer to go through.
As things stand, De Gea, whose deal with United expires at the end of the season, could find himself out in the cold, at least until the end of the year.
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