It is 13 years since Raphael Varane chose Real Madrid over Manchester United and earlier this summer there was a feeling in the corridors of power at Old Trafford that history was likely to repeat itself with another hugely talented young French defender.
Leny Yoro was at Wembley Stadium on June 1 to watch Real Madrid beat Borussia Dortmund in the Champions League final and most of his suitors, including United, believed he would join compatriot Kylian Mbappe in the Spanish capital before long.
Real Madrid’s French contingent, comprising Eduardo Camavinga, Aurélien Tchouaméni and Ferland Mendy, had been in contact with the 18-year-old, although it was not exactly as if the reigning Spanish and European champions needed an aggressive strategy. Not with Mbappé also on board. The appeal was huge.
Varane, of course, had been unable to resist that attraction as an 18-year-old in 2011, much to the disappointment of then United manager Sir Alex Ferguson, who had even travelled to the player’s mother’s home in France to try to seal a deal while the club’s chief executive at the time, David Gill, hashed out the finer points of the contract with Lens.
But Real Madrid were not to be outdone and sent in legendary former Real Madrid and France midfielder Zinedine Zidane to get Varane’s attention and, in Ferguson’s words, “somehow get him out from under our noses.”
Varane would go on to win three La Liga titles and four Champions League trophies during an illustrious decade-long career with Real Madrid and Yoro was presented with the chance to move on and do something similar, having found himself in the same position as his compatriot all those years before. Real Madrid felt that was their most likely destination. So the odds were stacked against United – and Yoro’s other main suitors Liverpool and Paris St-German.
But United never gave up, not when there was still a rare chance of landing a player regarded by many within football circles as a generational talent.
Yoro was being offered a different project: the chance to be at the centre of something new, something bold, with the promise of playing time that Real Madrid, with their galaxy of stars, are unlikely to offer. The fact that he is joining United as a replacement for Varane, who was released at the end of last season, is a delicious irony.
Reaching a deal with Yoro’s club, Lille, was the easy part for United. The French club, reluctant to lose such a highly-rated talent for nothing at the end of next season when his contract expires, agreed a deal with United last week for a reported £58.8m including add-ons. Real Madrid, who had hoped to land Yoro as a free agent, did not appear willing to pay a fee of that calibre, however much they coveted the teenager.
But the hardest thing was convincing Yoro that his future would be better served in the M16 than in Madrid and, although he landed in Manchester on Wednesday morning ahead of a planned medical and to finalise personal terms, no one at Old Trafford was calm.
It is a new regime at Old Trafford but United’s experience of trying to sign top young talent has not been a happy one over the past decade, ever since Gareth Bale’s decision to leave the club for Real in 2013.
More recently, Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham, two of the biggest names in this latest generation of young footballers, said ‘no’ to United and opted instead to join Borussia Dortmund within six months of each other.
That’s why United’s impending capture of Yoro seems significant and an important early marker in the Ineos era.
United had formed a costly habit of signing difficult, veteran superstars in the twilight of their careers, while this is exactly the opposite and a clear indication of the direction the new football operations quartet of chief executive Omar Berrada, sporting director Dan Ashworth, technical director Jason Wilcox and director of recruitment Christopher Vivell will take.
